The Other Kryptonian
by Amerilo
Summary: Set after the events of "Justice League", 2017 film. Kal-El (Superman) is not alone. On Earth he has his cousin, Kara Zor-El (Supergirl). Now he has just discovered a third Kryptonian exists on the planet. But is she a friend or a foe? A mysterious dark haired woman. Interwoven romance. Other DC characters. Bat Man, Wonder Woman, Flash, Supergirl. Superman/Lois & Superman/Gwen OC
1. Chapter 1

Clark was sitting at the breakfast table in Lois' apartment, sipping coffee from a small white mug. He thought this American practice of morning breakfast was one of the most loved and tender dynamics of his experience growing up in his adopted family. It made him think of his Dad. His Dad had loved coffee too. Clark remembered the first time he had tried the beverage he had found the taste revolting and way too acidic, but ever since then he had kept up the tradition of drinking it once in a while, if only to feel closer to those he loved. Like his Dad, and now to Lois, since she guzzled the stuff like water.

Lois was currently in the bathroom, getting ready for work. Clark was already dressed in a clean gray button down shirt and dark wash navy jeans. Both were by Ralph Lauren. Lois had made it her personal mission (among the millions of other activities she obsessed over) to outfit him in the typical American style. Due to her efforts, he had a wardrobe made up entirely of button down shirts, collared polos, blue jeans, and a few tailored suits. He was ready for working the streets of New York or attending fancier events. Clark didn't mind. Honestly he liked Lois' choices. He wouldn't wear them otherwise, no matter how much he loved her.

The television was on in the living room, directly in his line of vision, and even without turning the volume up, Clark could hear every word and see what was going on. The world news was playing of course, since this was Lois' place. She was so passionate… Clark had quickly learned to stay in tune with the news as well, especially after revealing his powers—his gifts—to the world and becoming the symbol that the public wanted. If he could have had it his way, he would rather be out of the lime light, helping people as a vigilante. But instead he had become some sort of celebrity, and was dubbed a "hero". A big title, coupled with an even bigger responsibility to live up to.

So many eyes were constantly watching and judging him, and Clark had to remind himself not to let it overwhelm him. He was bigger than all of that. He needed to focus on his life, while still keeping his ear to the ground or his eyes to the skies.

Right now the television was showing the familiar backdrop of Metropolis and its skyscrapers. A newswoman was smiling at the camera and talking about how relieved and happy the world was to have Superman back. And she was coyly calling him out, letting him know that his public was wondering where he was, and were ready to receive him. That he should stop hiding, that he should interact with his beloved fans and make an appearance. Soon. It had been a week since the world had heard that he had returned.

Clark thought he deserved some privacy, and holed himself up in Lois' apartment. This was after the gifted team Bat Man and Wonder Woman had gathered defeated that maniac Steppenwolf, and sent him (or rather was what left of him) and his army of creepy Parademons back to whatever god-forsaken alternate dimension they had come from. Clark shouldn't have been surprised at this point. He knew there were always other creatures, other aliens, from the past or even the future stepping into his radar and threatening his Earth.

But he still felt woefully underprepared, even vulnerable sometimes. He just never told anyone about that side of him. Not even Lois. He had grilled Wonder Woman on what she knew of the old gods and the Amazons during their flight back to the mainland. She was happy to oblige him. She always seemed to be calm and collected. A wise and seductive warrior. She brought him up to speed on the legends of those old worlds, her race of Amazons, and hinted at other threats that she knew of. She recounted as much history as she could. Clark soaked it all in.

Then she had followed the Bat Man to Gothem City once the team had disbanded. It was none of Clark's business what those two were up to, but he couldn't help grinning to himself as he saw them walk off together, brushing fingers ever so coyly. Just as well; maybe they would be good for each other. He had definitely picked up a spark somewhere there. Hell, the Bat Man could use some cheering up and it couldn't hurt to have a demigod watching his back.

The Cyborg kid had disappeared also, licking his wounds, so to say and nodding his thanks. Aquaman slipped back into the ocean. Clark had only first impressions to go on, but he sensed Aquaman had a big ego and it was a wonder the ocean was large enough to hold it.

Clark was feeling much more himself this past week, after being resurrected so violently, a process he still had mixed feelings about. Bruce and his hair-brained ideas…using the Genesis Chamber, seriously! Still, at the end of the day Clark preferred being alive. He had a strange, numb feeling and dark dreams of that time being in death's embrace.

He had shaken that off, even forced himself to loosen up a little and had some fun accepting a bet by that fast kid, Barry. They started a race from coast to coast, starting at the East Coast. He had humored the Flash for a while, letting the race be close, but as the Pacific Ocean came into view, Clark had put on a burst of speed and beat him. Well, kids these days, they can't get everything they wanted, or they would get spoiled. While Clark had considered the race a bit of fun, Flash went off sulking somewhere like a sore loser. But when Clark tuned in to the Flash right now, he knew the kid was safe in Metropolis, talking the ear off of some poor barista in a coffee shop twenty miles away.

Clark abruptly came out of his relaxing reverie as his ears picked up a tight change in the TV reporter's voice. She was now cutting over to a story happening now. An ugly looking winged metal creature was running on roofs and crashing through buildings, causing general havoc. No…wait, it was fashioned quite like those Parademons he had recently wrestled with.

Clark sighed and set his coffee down, being careful not to crush the delicate little ceramic cup in his strong grip.

"Lois?" he strode a few steps toward the bathroom and poked his head in the door. She was sitting, fully clothed, on the edge of the bathtub and struggling to pull pantyhose onto her shapely legs.

"Yes?" she looked up, assessed his face and registered he had some news even before he mentioned the trouble.

"I've got to go. Another one of those annoying metal creatures is loose in the city. Can't imagine why. Be careful riding to work." He said, his dark eyebrows coming down and his jaw set hard.

"Ok Clark." She jumped up and nearly tripped over her tangled legs, still trying to get the nylons on. He saved her the trouble of standing as he crushed her to his chest and hugged her tightly. Then he set her down. "You be safe too!" she called after him as he walked out of the room. "I just got you back, remember?"

Clark smiled and stripped off his shirt and jeans, draping them over the back of the couch as he walked through the living room. His gray-blue Krypton suit, complete with vibrant red cape was underneath. His second skin. His constant and comfortable reminder of the planet he was from and the legacy he represented. Clark opened the glass doors to Lois' third floor apartment balcony and blasted up into the bright blue sky.

It was a great day for flying. Well, it was a great day everyday now that he was alive—again, he supposed. Still, the warmth of Earth's yellow sun feeding and nourishing his Kryptonian cells felt like a close friend, and as he flew he lifted his face to that light to soak more of it in.

As Clark approached the center of the city, his sharp eyes zeroed in on that annoying perpetrator, which was now half flying, half jumping across roofs, still causing destruction of property. He streaked through the sky like a bullet. The closer he got, the more righteous anger flared deep within his chest.

"I'll make this quick." He growled to himself. Just another typical day cleaning up messes. He was tired of seeing these metal creatures though, especially so soon after he and the Justice League had just dealt with them. They should have all vanished with Steppenwolf…

The Parademon finally spotted Superman. It threw back its head, letting out a long, piercing metallic scream that grated on his ultra-sensitive ears. Clark grimaced and was just thinking that the creature wasn't the only thing calling him out of hiding today when a whole swarm of them rose up from the streets.

Damn. How had so many survived? There had to be at least 200. Why hadn't they all been sucked up into Steppenwolf's portal? Attracted to Steppenwolf's defeated fear? He wondered briefly if the other members of the Justice League might be tuning in to this situation through whatever means they monitored trouble, as he dove down, fist raised. Superman clobbered the first Parademon into pieces of scattered metal. The rest of the swarm moved in, screeching like a bunch of rusty banshees as they lunged toward him. Ok, so the battle was going to take place on top of….a P&CC Production company building. Clark scanned the length of the building with his eyes, his X-ray vision, and was relieved to see that there were only a couple of humans moving around the lower floor. It was Saturday after all. Fine. He would get this over with quickly.

Clark dodged and darted and swung, never landing on the building, but flying through the swarm of metal creatures, in, out and around them, annihilating them with his powerful fists. He was just warming to his theme when he saw a flash of emerald green and felt the sizzling prick of pain as the glowing tip of Kryptonite pierced his alien skin.

Clark grimaced as he looked down at the three inch long shard protruding from his left bicep. He yanked it out angrily and threw the piece of poison far away from him even as another shard sunk into his lower back. He spun around, roaring his frustration as he assessed the situation. A select few of the Parademons were outfitted with green Kryptonite claws! Who had done this?

This was quickly looking like a trap. A trap laid just for him by someone devious enough to lure him in.


	2. Chapter 2

Superman yanked the Parademon off his back and threw the offender down against the building's roof in a massive body slam. His superior strength drove the creature clean through the roof and through eleven floors beneath that too. More Kryptonite pricked his body as the swarm of flying maniacs tried their best to latch and tear into him.

Clark spun and wove and finally jetted up with a blast of air toward the sky, gambling on how high the demons could fly with him. He wrestled off three that were clinging to his back and legs and threw them towards the planet's surface, but his breath was coming in rasps the higher he flew.

Damn. That blasted Kryptonite was working quickly, weakening him. Clark checked his person and pulled a dozen more shards out of his skin, growling over the tears they left in his newly repaired suit. He fairly steamed with repressed anger.

The Parademons continued following him, little caring about the thinning oxygen. They swirled in a flock of maddening numbers as they flapped up towards him, claws reaching, mouths still screaming that raw, infernal call. Clark was just about to unleash his heat vision on them, hoping to torch some into pieces when he noticed a dark shape rapidly climbing up from the distant city streets and entering the cloud of aliens. No, the shape wasn't climbing…it was flying, true as an arrow, straight into the sky like he was. Was it one of the Justice League? Who could have gotten here so quickly? Bat Man and Wonder Women were across the lake in Gothem City. The Flash couldn't fly. Neither could Aquaman. Cyborg was too injured last time Clark had seen him to be jumping back in the game this quickly.

The shape was quickly looking to his eyes like a woman. Clark blinked, and felt his head start to spin. He slowed his accent. He was up 35,000 feet in Earth's atmosphere and still those creatures were gaining on him. He caught glimpses of the black clothed woman darting in and out of the aliens. They started dropping like flies. Clearly she was something other than human, or a gifted one at that. She was handling herself well as she fought and traded blows.

"What am I doing hanging back like a coward up here?" Clark thought to himself, frowning. No matter how nauseated he felt from the effects of the Kryptonite, someone was fighting his battle for him and he needed to get back down there and help.

Clark kicked his feet back and plummeted out of the sky, fists stretched before him as he flew down into the cloud of metal creatures, red cape streaming out behind him. He used his fists and forearms like battering rams as he slammed into the Parademons.

Their screeching cacophony filled his ears anew, but the noise only fueled his anger. He was fed up with them and whatever master had so deviously outfitted them with Kryptonite. So he let the shrill keening flow through him and he diffused it. Ignored it. He punched and kicked and even head butted any metal creature that got in his way. Dozens of them fell back toward earth from his efforts, and he was just enjoying a moment of satisfaction and assessing the destruction when he noticed a different pitch mixed in the racket. The mystery woman. She was still in the thickest part of the flying cloud of creatures, and she was screaming.

Clark blasted through aliens toward her, fighting his way down through the sky, flinching and grunting as he felt bits of Kryptonite pierce his arms. He angrily tore apart the nearest Parademon with his bare hands, and then suddenly he was upon her.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as he saw her. Their enemies floated sluggishly around them, the low, throbbing of Clark's own heartbeat pounded slowly in his ears.

They faced each other, only a few feet apart, both of them standing on their own power in thin air, both of them clutching handfuls of mangled alien creatures in their powerful hands. Clark was shocked into stupefaction. He assessed the woman's physical attributes in a heartbeat. Six foot, 30-ish years old, flushed tan skin, long curly black hair, medium build, frowning mouth, green eyes. But beside all that, he was more interested in the fact that she was super strong, super fast, had super flight, and was wearing a black leather bodysuit with a delicately embroidered symbol over her heart. Clark didn't have to squint to see that detail, since his eye sight was extraordinary. But any human would have missed the barely visible black thread forming an inch wide shape of his family's coat of arms—that awesome symbol of Hope that the humans mistook for an "S".

Clark knew he looked ridiculous, that his eyes were boggling out of his head but he couldn't have cared. What or who was he looking at? She had to be Kryptonian, or else she was an excellent imposter. Who was she? She was talking now, her thin red lips moving slowly. What was she saying?

Clark wrenched himself out of the fog his mind was caught in, and forced his senses to run at his regular speed. The battle's din hit his eardrums and the flight of the Parademons became frenzied around him again, not running in slow motion like he had just perceived.

"Kal-El!" the dark haired woman was panting hard, grimacing as she punched an incoming demon away from her face. "Fly back up! Go! You were doing great up there. Avoid the Kryptonite!" Her green eyes met his again briefly, and he saw a host of emotions swirling within them. Foremost at the front was fear—for him? Certainly not for herself—determination, wild excitement and something else. Something raw and very much human that Clark could misread as either pain or empathy. Both of those emotions confused him sometimes. He stood there, frozen on the spot for a moment longer until she planted her feet and did a backflip in mid air, kicking him with a strength he had only seen in himself out of the cloud of Parademons.

Clark traveled miles away before he righted himself and shook himself out of his daze. This time he really woke up. He felt alive again. Truly alive. Maybe it was exhilaration and intrigue coursing through his veins along with the Kryptonian blood that flowed within. That woman was amazing! She was just like him! And she had called him Kal-El, his Krypton name, not Clark Kent, his Earth alias. His face darkened. She was overly concerned about saving him for some strange reason. In fact, from what he could see as the aliens dropped and the whole swarm sank lower and lower back toward the city, the woman caught in their clutches she looked willing to sacrifice herself—for him.

Clark bolted forward, electrified. It was time to end this now and get some much needed answers.

He flew into the heart of the battle again, putting renewed energy into his mighty punches and kicks. Over half of the Parademons had been defeated. He halved those numbers again, as he worked his way through the cloud of metal aliens. The Kryptonian woman was beginning to show signs of weakness. She shouted like a warrior as she fought, but those cries were now sounding more strained than impressive, and he knew (just like he roared every time it happened to him) that she was still getting jabbed by those evil claws of green Kryptonite. She had a different sounding scream every time one of the claws pierced her. Like a part of her was dying.

Clark went mad with rage. This was not a battle for exercise, or testing strength. Knowing that the super woman was in serious trouble seemed to awaken a familiar sense of protectiveness in him and he unleashed the flaming red bolts from his eyes, cutting through an entire swatch of Parademons. As the other Kryptonian had mysteriously come to his aid, he came to hers. One good turn deserved another, or something like that.

She obviously didn't see it that way. Even as she fell backward toward Metropolis, she screwed up her face to scowl up at him, her eyes now filled with wrath.

"Stupid man!" she yelled, spitting as blood trickled out of the corner of her lips. "Stay away! Go away!" A pair of Parademons leaped on her chest. Five green tipped claws sank into her chest and with that she lost the ability to fly. She fell out of the sky, still half-heartedly kicking and punching Parademons.


	3. Chapter 3

While that reasoning was certainly maddening, Clark had no intention of listening to her. He flew faster, cutting through the aliens with a super human speed and virility. He reached the Kryptonian woman just before she hit the roof of a Metropolis building. She was coughing and trembling in his arms, blood seeping from several wounds around the shards of green Kryptonite that dotted her body.

"Now who's the stupid one? We have to defeat these things together." the words slipped past Clark's lips before he had a chance to bite them back. His bitter anger surprised him, and the woman must have mirrored the expression on his face as her black eyebrows rose up. She quickly looked away and jumped, trying to fly but instead careened in the air above the building clumsily, like her body suddenly was too heavy to control against Earth's gravitational pull. She collided with a Parademon who would have sunk its claws into Clark's neck. Aliens landed on the roof and continued to battle. The woman fought back sloppily but still managed to destroy a dozen more metal divebombers. The alien flock was thinning.

Clark clenched his teeth and took a deep breath, slowing his racing heart. He assessed the battle with his superhuman senses and rose several yards above the roof, quickly darting in and killing off the remaining Parademons that were still airborne. The woman finished off the remnants on the roof, although she was still weakening steadily. So much so that the last alien was able to drop her with a Kryptonite spiked fist to the stomach. The woman and the metal alien went rolling across the roof and stopped near the East edge.

Clark touched down onto the roof and bent over, his hands on his knees, catching his breath. His head reeled with pain and exhaustion. Man, that infernal Kryptonite was powerful stuff. He had felt it before of course and more intensely when he battled Doomsday with that Kryptonite spear Bat Man had fashioned. These little claws were still a similar pain; just spread out over his whole body instead of as a centralized, burning stab. He located and picked a couple dozen claws out of his skin, and tossed them over the edge of the roof, and walked over to the woman. She was lying on her back, the last Parademon splayed on top of her.

Clark angrily wrenched the alien off of her, and tore it apart, throwing the mangled pieces behind him. His ears tuned out the noises and cries of emergency sirens and people of the city below as he knelt and began pulling shards of Kryptonite out of the woman's arms, legs, and torso as fast as he could. She was in bad shape. She had over 50 shards lodged in and poisoning her body.

"Who are you?" he asked, leaning over her, concern written across his face.

She moaned and squeezed her eyes closed, breath coming in rattling rasps. Clark repeated his question more urgently.

Her eyes snapped open, their green intensity boring into his as she wheezed "I couldn't let you die…not again."

She coughed up more blood and cried out when Clark rolled her over so he could get the Kryptonite out of her back muscles. They both winced at every touch. Clark from the burn of the Kryponite as he kept handling it despite his body's protests, and the woman from the sting the shards caused as they ripped out of her skin.

Clark could already feel his alien body healing slowly—albeit very slowly—after he had picked all the Kryptonite out of himself just moments before, and he hoped the process would be the same for this mystery woman. But as he extracted the last of the poison from the bloodstained arch of her neck, she stopped breathing altogether and went very still.

Clark's own heart nearly stopped in a cold grip of fear. No. That wasn't supposed to happen! The rooftop they were on was shaded, hidden in the tall shadow of a neighboring skyscraper. He frowned and picked her up, his normally strong legs unsteady with the aftereffects of the Kryptonite. He couldn't let this female die. Clark angled his jaw, gazing up at the huge ball of glowing energy overhead, and drew on every ounce of his remaining strength into launching himself upward from the roof.

He was relieved that he could still fly, although it was an effort. He needed to recharge, to be close to that life-sustaining Sun. And if this woman was truly the same species as him, she needed the Sun as well.

Welcoming, healing warmth basked his face the higher he flew, and the closer he got to the sun, the better and stronger he felt. Clark lost track of time as he jetted through the thermosphere and burst into the eerie, cold quiet of outer space. He cradled the woman in his arms and stopped flying, angling her directly toward the sun, willing her to heal too.

The blue sphere of the Earth went inverted, rolling beneath him as he floated on his back. He gripped the woman against him tightly, his heart pounding rapidly in his chest. He waited, his thoughts scattered, a thousand scenarios rising with the questions in his mind. If she didn't wake up, he just might explode from the anticipation—

Her eyes flew open and her back arched as she gasped for air that was not there. A silent scream escaped her lips, and she looked around wildly before she realized he was holding her and her gaze settled on him. Then she calmed. She realized she was fine. She didn't actually need to breathe. She was alien. An Earthling would have been dead in outer space by now, but she was revitalized by the warmth of that same glowing, burning star that Superman was flying weightlessly beside, both of them caught in a moment of time between the Sun and Earth. Her Kryptonian cells began to rebuild. The puncture wounds in her skin knit together and the Parademon claw marks on her face faded the longer she stayed near the brilliance of the Sun.

Clark continued to hold her in a vice grip that would have snapped a human in two. He was not holding back his strength, as a sort of sly experiment and he was pleased to note that he could not crush this woman. Earth's Sun healed him too. It was a wonderful feeling to know his full powers had returned.

They couldn't talk in this vacuum though, so Clark had to content himself with merely studying the female for now. He bent his head to get a better view of her beautiful face, and arched an inquisitive eyebrow. She raised a tentative hand and gently stroked his side of his clean shaven face with the backs of her knuckles. Her touch was sweet and soft like a butterfly whisper. Her expression was amazed, eyes shining brightly as she stared back at him. Clark smiled thinly, feeling a sense of peace despite the questions crowding his mind. Then her face seized in pain as she clutched her throat and started thrashing to get out of the circle of his arms. Her eyes went wild with panic and desperation as she mouthed "I need air!"

Clark frowned deeply. How bizarre...he never needed to breathe in outer space. He could hold his breath and his Kryptonian body was fine until he descended back into Earth's atmosphere and decided on his own terms to use his lungs again.

That meant there was still something terribly wrong with this woman. Or that was wasn't completely Kryptonian. Both options scared him, and Clark didn't feel that emotion very often in his life. So he dove, pouring on the speed as he jetted back toward the small blue planet and plunged once more into its cloudy atmosphere. The female was in a frenzy now. He nearly dropped her as she clawed and kicked, trying to hasten her decent into oxygenated air. They barreled down head first faster and faster, breaking the sound barrier.

As they burst through into Earth's Troposphere, 40,000 feet above sea level, they both took deep breaths of oxygenated air and Superman slowed their decent.

The woman shivered and hugged herself, gulping and heaving. Clark adjusted his hold on her and his eyes swept the horizon, trying to determine what side of Earth he had flown down through. He spotted a nearby tall landmark and made a beeline for it. He landed them on top of the Swiss Alps and let go of the other Kryptonian.

Instantly he wished he hadn't. She whimpered-a truly pitiful sound-and collapsed under her own weight into the soft snow. She lay there on her side, still breathing hard, pressing her hands to her chest.

"What's wrong?" Clark was going to lose it soon if she didn't start healing. He was beyond concerned. From what he had observed up to this point, he was 99% sure she was just as Kryptonian as he was, but that other 1% nagged at him. He knelt in the snow and drew her up into his lap, cradling her head with one hand and pulling her wrists down from her chest with his free hand. She writhed, yanking her wrists out of his grip, tears rolling down her face.

"Let me see what's wrong." Clark insisted.

"I'm weak." She whispered. "So weak. You shouldn't see me like this. Just go, Kal!" She shivered harder.

"The hell I will!" Clark growled, more forcefully than he meant to. What more foolishness could come out of her mouth today? Her green eyes widened, instantly reminding him of a frightened animal. "You are not weak." Clark continued, softly, "I just saw you fight a whole legion of Parademons. Tell me what's wrong."

The woman's teeth chattered too hard to respond but she dropped her arms away from her chest and went slack in his lap. Clark squinted down, using his X-Ray vision to investigate. He searched frantically for a minute, trying to pinpoint the cause of her distress, and then spotted it. A jagged shard of glowing green Kryptonite was lodged deep inside her rib cage. That's why she couldn't completely heal. His heart went out to her, imagining the throbbing pain she must be experiencing. That poison inside of her that he couldn't get out.

He blinked, returning his eyesight to what was considered normal and told her what he had discovered.


	4. Chapter 4

"You've got a shard of Kryptonite in your rib cage." Clark instinctively laid his thumb on the spot, under her heart, between her sixth and seventh left side ribs. She flinched and jerked away, indignant fire leaping into her eyes. "Sorry." Clark soothed, his voice low and rumbling. "I'm only trying to help."

"I know." She grimaced. "Get it out of me. Please."

"I don't think I can." Clark shook his head. "It's in too deeply. I'll hurt you too much if I try with my crude methods. Do I have your permission to touch you again?" He reached a hand toward her, surprised at the tremor that was lacing his normally steely voice. Why should he care if she rejected him or not?

The woman nodded, her chest rising and falling slowly, a soft wheeze escaping her lips as she visibly composed herself. "I don't care if you hurt me. You already do every day."

Clark's brows snapped together hard again. "Enough. What's that supposed to mean? Who are you?"

"I don't feel like myself right now." The woman half apologized, "My normal demeanor is more like raging bitch than cowardly lion." She began to cough violently before either of them could comprehend her strange question evasion. Clark hurried to support her again in the sturdy circle of his arms and then shot up like a bullet, a cloud of snow exploding beneath him as he searched for civilization. He thought about landing in the nearest town he spotted, but decided against it, since a small town might not have the kind of modern hospital they needed.

He finally touched down in Zurich, landing on the street in front of a huge University Hospital. Swiss citizens cried out in alarm at his sudden arrival, pointing or recoiling as he strode across the busy roadway and made his way into the hospital lobby. Using his gift of multilingualism, Clark quickly picked up the language around him in seconds and addressed a startled looking desk attendant in smooth Swedish.

"I need a surgeon. My—" he frowned for a second, momentarily at a loss over what to call the Kryptonian female. "—friend needs a surgeon. Quickly."

The attendant fumbled with an intercom and spoke into it rapidly, calling for backup. He tried to explain that there was a procedure to follow, not to mention a waiting list, but he didn't get very far before his breath caught in horror at Superman's deadly looking glare.

"Kal, you're scaring the shit out of these people." The woman slurred. She was looking very sleepy. Her skin was clammy and blanched. The Kryptonite poisoning her internally was working quickly. Too quickly. "Fly to Metropolis…they know you there."

"They know me here too." Clark growled under his breath in English, glancing at the sea of wide eyes around them. "Apparently as a curiosity from television. An object to be discussed in a committee." He directed that last word at the desk attendant, his gaze intense again. "I don't have time for this." He snapped in Swedish.

"Kal, don't." The woman pleaded. But her voice sounded very far away. "It's not worth bullying your way in here. It won't look good for you—"

"Do you think I care about that!" Clark shook his head at her in frustration as he turned and pushed past the front desk. He strode down a sterile smelling corridor, looking this way and that, penetrating the walls with his xray vision as he traced the best path to the surgeon's wing. "You won't survive the trip to Metropolis." He stated gravely. The woman took another shuddering breath, as if to protest before her body went limp. His name, his Kryptonian name died on her lips.

Clark quickened his pace. He certainly made a menacing sight, carrying a languishing woman and looking fit to kill anyone who got in his way as he marched down corridor after corridor and shouldered through closed doors, his red cape snapping behind him. He ignored the sound of blaring alarms and the frightened medical personal that jumped out of his path until he finally crashed through into a surgical prep room.

Two middle aged men were just rinsing down after a procedure, their arms and tunics streaked with red blood. They jumped in surprise as Superman made his impressive entry.

"She needs surgery. Now!" Clark demanded in Swedish.

"But she's not next in line! We have a liver transplant next!" the surgeons glared and demanded an explanation. A group of nurses and other assistants flowed through the man sized hole in the broken door behind Clark, looking both shocked and curious.

"She's poisoned. You've got to help her next or she'll die." Clark stressed, his expression pleading and irritating at the same time.

"She's not prepped!" the doctors chorused stubbornly, looking extremely annoyed themselves.

Clark clenched his jaw to avoid screaming in their faces and advanced toward the doors that led into the sterilized operating room.

"NOOOOOOOO!" the Swedes called behind him. "You'll contaminate everything in there! Then she definitely won't survive!" Clark stopped walking and glared, challenging them.

"Which way do you want to do this then?" He said icily.

"Fine." The two surgeons quickly stripped off their scrubs, dirty from the last patient, and began rapidly dressing into clean uniforms, their attendants helping. "We'll do it your way, mister. But this is not acceptable."

"I understand." Clark watched them, standing impassively as he tried to clamp down on his raging anger.

"What is her injury?" the head surgeon asked impatiently, still looking very put out as he washed his arms with soap and water up to his elbows.

"A shard of Kryptonite." Clark sighed through his nose even before he registered the man's confused expression. "It's a piece of green alien material from my home planet, Krypton. It killed me once and I'm pretty sure it's slowly killing this woman if it's not removed." He went on to explain in detail where he had seen the offending shard, and in what position it was lodged. He glanced down and used his xray vision to scan the woman's chest cavity as he spoke, "Actually It's not between her ribs anymore. It's moved toward her heart." His face darkened even further as he gave that update. No wonder she was so weak.

Four white clothed assistants rolled over a metal cart and urged Clark to lay the dying woman on it. Clark looked reluctant but did so, his skin feeling cold as the warm body heat of the other Kryptonian left his arms.

The head surgeon pursed his lips, held out his clean hands and allowed a nurse to open the door to the operating room ahead of him. "Then it sounds like we'd better move quickly." He spat in clipped Swedish. "And no," he leveled Clark with a glare "You cannot follow. You can watch through the glass partition." His gaze fell to the symbol on Clark's chest, and he wrinkled his nose in disgust as he took in the rest of Clark's battle scorched suit and boots. "You're the Superman. Do the right thing. You're only putting this woman in more danger with your filthy presence. This whole situation is bad enough as it is, and you've already caused enough destruction today." He disappeared though the doors with the rest of the medical personnel and the cart.

Superman tried to control his rapid breathing. His fingers curled into fists and every muscle in his powerful body begged to burst into that operating room against his better judgment. He calmed his mind and focused his supersensory abilities, watching through the glass and tuning his ears to listen through it as well.

The surgeons muttered, swore, protested and said other unkind things about Superman's atrocious behavior but they worked quickly, cutting away the woman's black leather top. Clark averted his eyes then with a start, suddenly rethinking his decision to watch the procedure in order to preserve her modesty. The head surgeon sliced into the woman's skin easily, as her body was weakened to that of a normal human from the side effects of the Kryptonite. Clark turned his back and leaned against the glass window, listening hard as the surgery took place, his every sense on high alert for the slightest hint of danger. He had already picked out the rhythmic sound of the woman's breathing and the rhythm of her heart beat. He concentrated mainly on that, monitoring her and waiting in near agony.

A blond haired nurse poked her head in from the outer hallway, grinning at the crumpled metal doorway he had entered through.

"Who is she?" she asked him quietly, in Swedish, jutting her chin out at the surgery room.

Clark sighed heavily and closed his eyes.

"I honestly don't know." He admitted, after a long pause.

"Are you really the Superman we've seen on television?" she continued, her voice catching with mixed excitement and fear.

Clark swallowed thickly, his Adam's apple bobbing. The nurse's eyes darted to his thick neck. She looked fascinated.

"That's what they call me." Clark answered sullenly. He opened his eyes, feeling the events of the past hour catching up to him. "I, uh, I'm usually not this reckless."

"Oh I know." The nurse smiled, dipping her head. "Some of us were more surprised at your appearance than angry with you being here. Well, some of us are actually very angry. Yes. Actually." She amended, shifting on her feet and crossing her arms, smiling and blushing. "You make me flustered."

"Sorry." Clark said, and he meant it. His actions would have repercussions. But at least he might have not been too late getting the Kryptonian woman help. He stopped listening to the soft voice of the nurse as she babbled on, though he knew it was rude, and stared at the white tile ceiling.

 _I'm trying to keep Clark in character. He wants to save lives, but he also has to do things on his own terms sometimes. Review if you want! Let me know your thoughts._


	5. Chapter 5

After another hour, the operation was complete. Clark could tell from eavesdropping that it was done even before the surgeon walked through the door and begrudgingly announced:

"The surgery was a success."

"Thank you." Clark nodded, looking immensely relieved. He barely concealed a flinch though as the doctor thrust a bowl holding the glowing green Kryptonite toward him.

"What do you want us to do with this, alien?" the doctor asked, none too kindly.

Clark considered telling the doctor where to bury the shard, but he ended up saying:

"Give it to me. I'll take care of it."

The surgeon quickly dropped the bloody shard in a plastic bag and left it on a table. He started to clean up, ignoring Superman. Clark tucked the shard into the top of his left boot and risked a glance through the glass partition. The woman's chest was fortunately covered with a white sheet now, and technicians were carefully unhooking her from a respirator and other medical contraptions used to stabilize her body during the procedure. He didn't have to bother the doctor. He could sense she wasn't awake yet. But her breathing and heart rate were still steady.

"Can I take her now?" he asked.

The surgeon rolled his eyes heavenward. "Now you ask permission? By all means! Please do. Take your unauthorized self and your unauthorized patient and leave." He risked an uneasy glance at Clark. "I know you think you're a man without a country, but someone will be hearing from us about this—"

"I understand completely." Clark replied stonily. "And I will try to make this right." He never broke the old doctor's severe gaze as he waited for the assistants to roll the operating table back through the doors. Then Clark quickly bent over the mystery woman and scooped her up, hospital sheet and all. The nurses flinched and gasped as if expecting him to take the easy way out and blast a hole through the ceiling, but Clark just thanked them all again, and deliberately walked through the ruined door and down the hall, winding his way to the nearest marked exit.

The route was swarming with curious hospital workers and member of the media. "We wouldn't let anyone question you while you were in the operating wing." The doting nurse who had talked to him before smiled, trying to keep pace alongside Clark and looking very proud of herself as she indicated the cameramen and clamoring reporters with a sweep of her hand.

Clark schooled his expression into dignified indifference as he continued walking, speaking to no one despite how many people thrust themselves into his path and asked him questions in rapid Swedish.

"Why did you come here, of all places?"

"Who is that mystery woman?"

"Is she related to you?"

"What's wrong with her?"

"Won't you make a statement about your behavior today?"

"Superman! Over here! Superman! Superman!"

Security guards further hampered his progress as they got mixed up in the crowd, hollering their own instructions and trying to get some order back in the hospital.

Superman tamped down on his emotions and conducted himself with immense patience, stopping and going, inching his way through the crowds when in all honesty the only thing he did want to do was bolt through the roof and into the freedom the open skies offered. He finally reached a stairwell and left the humans all behind as he ran up three stories of stairs and out onto the helicopter pad.

The Kryptonite shard was irritating him through his boot, like a nagging itch, but it wasn't as potent wrapped in plastic. Clark's flight wasn't hampered as he took to the air, being mindful not to damage the building in the process.

He had flown halfway across the Atlantic Ocean at record speed when the woman inhaled deeply and awoke with a start, digging her sharp fingertips into his back muscles as she gripped him.

"Kal! What happened?"

"Ow!" Clark smiled the first smile he had managed during this whole bizarre and hectic day and brought her up to speed on what happened in the hospital, omitting no details.

Her face crumpled into a frown as he described the destruction he had caused through the Swedish hospital. When he stopped talking she was silent for a while, thinking.

"I am not proud of how you handled that." She said, displeasure still written on her face. She was clearly worried about his public image, not how close she had come to losing her own life.

Clark furrowed his brows and stopped flying, standing in mid air thousands of miles above the ocean waves.

"You're an enigma." He stated.

"Why thank you." She replied and abruptly pushed off of him. She immediately screeched and started falling toward the water.

Clark swooped quickly, caught her by the arms and hauled her back up. She stood on the tops of his feet, facing him, her arms wrapped around his shoulders. Then she started laughing shakily. It was a comical sound.

"I guess I can't fly quite yet. Strange…" her voice turned serious as she looked down at their toes. "It's strange to lose your powers when you are so used to them. Being able to do anything. Nothing's impossible. "

"Who are you?" Clark blurted, forcing her to look back at him. "And why do you call me Kal? Are we related?"

"Can't we do this someplace else?" The woman swept her eyes over the ocean surface. She looked very uncomfortable.

"No." Clark snapped. His gaze was earnest. He was begging for answers.

He waited until she decided to speak again, little caring how much time was actually passing. Clearly they were both equally matched in stubbornness. They could stand like this until eternity until she spoke. Clark wouldn't budge. The woman pursed her lips.

"My name is Gw'len Elon. I am from Krypton. Like you." She said at last. She turned her head from him, choosing instead to scan the vast horizon. "Here on Earth I go by Gwen. It's easier to say." Kal El just stared at her for a long moment.

"Gw'len." He said slowly, tasting the words. He pronounced the Krypton name correctly as she did, sounding like "Ga-wa-lean". She smiled stiffly, still avoiding his dark eyes.

"And no, we are not related. I know of you and your cousin, Kara Zor-El, but I have no connection to your family."

"How did you get here?" Kal asked. "You might as well tell me everything. I bet you can guess all my next questions."

"I've anticipated them, yes." Gwen said softly. "I've rehearsed over and over in my head what I would say if and when I eventually met you. Of course nothing ever goes according to plan..."

Clark gently gripped her chin and made her look at him again. He was surprised at how immeasurably sad her eyes were. Something was still tormenting her inside.

"What's wrong?" his tone was genuine. Concerned. He resisted the urge to break her gaze and examine her body again with his xray vision. She seemed nervous enough as it was.

"I can't tell you." She blinked and it was as if she had abruptly closed the curtains over the secrets of her heart, against those large, huge emotions threatening to spill out of her green eyes. She took a step back.

Clark lunged forward intending to catch her, but she had stepped onto a cushion of air. She was strong enough, holding herself up by her own power again. Clark's forward motion brought him nose to nose with her instead. They both held their breath.

"Go back to Metropolis, Kal. Forget about me." Gwen whispered, the words tickling his chin. And then she was gone, streaking up like a dark bullet into the sky.


	6. Chapter 6

Kal-El exhaled an exasperated huff and turned East, following Gw'len back toward Europe. She was flying at supersonic speed and veering in a Southern arc, as if aiming for Africa instead. He took a split second to dig the Kryptonite shard out of his boot and drop it into the depths of the ocean before he put on a burst of speed and caught up to her.

Gwen glanced sidelong at him with a frown and they flew parallel to each other for a while until she descended and landed with an eruption of sand in the Sahara Desert.

Clark landed too—not as roughly—and spit sand out of the side of his mouth as he walked up to her.

She was stubbornly quiet.

"Did you forget I have the same abilities as you on this planet when you told me to get lost?" he began, sounding piqued.

He expected more anger and excuses from her, but instead, much to his puzzlement, she tried to hide a quirky smile from him and trudged away. He followed her stride. Together they climbed tall, shifting sand dunes, the desert winds tugging playfully at his red cape and her black hair. Gwen still had the white hospital sheet tied around her chest. She angrily ripped off most of the excess cloth and tossed it behind her.

"I'm going back to Australia." She stated, gazing toward the sizzling ball of Earth's yellow sun.

"That's where you're from?" Clark prodded.

She looked stormy. "That's where I've been staying." She corrected, knowing full well that he was fishing for the right information.

"How long have you been here?" he asked mildly. Gwen froze and rounded on him, looking disgusted.

"Really? Out of all your questions, you ask that one next?"

"It's a—" he began, also halting in his tracks.

"That's an awfully loaded question, Kal. If I say I've been on the planet as long or longer than you have, you'll accuse me of letting you think you were here all alone. You'll wonder why I've been hiding while this corrupt world falls to pieces. While the humans kill each other. While attacks from on high—"

"Stop!" Clark barked at her, his voice cutting off her bizarre tirade. He resisted the urge to grab her wrist, to make sure she didn't fly away. "I am not your enemy, Gw'len. I don't know what happened in your past, or what I did to deserve whatever pain I've caused you. But believe me, the malevolent thoughts you just described are only your imagined ones. I'm not here to judge you."

She looked surprised. They glared at each other for a long moment, unblinking. Then she dug the heels of her hands into her temples and dropped her arms with an exasperated sigh.

"I'm sorry, Kal-El. Perhaps I have been making up conversations with you in my head for too long."

"Well the real me is here now." He ground out. "And I need answers. Now."

"Fine." She began walking again. And a foot closer to him than before too, Clark noted subtly. "I'll tell you. I was brought here from another galaxy, in a strange rainbow colored tube of light. Before that there was a battle. A battle of alien monsters and armored, god like beings. I used to travel the universe searching for other Kryptonians. I was stationed on a scout ship at the time—lightyears away—when our planet was destroyed. And though I felt it in my heart, I didn't hear about our home's demise until months later, when I tried to return to Krypton. My crew was attacked. I was taken captive and escaped. I have no idea what happened to the others. That's why I kept searching." She paused to unstick her foot from a particularly deep drift and shake the sand from it. Kal-El remained silent, his head bent.

"When I was caught up in that tube of light, I realized it was some sort of portal. It landed me here, on Earth, and I couldn't get back off. I was deposited here like a piece of discarded refuse. In the wrong place at the wrong time, something like that. I don't know…I feel dropped on my head. I've been trying to make sense of it ever since." Gwen shook her hair.

"When." Clark cut in quickly.

"Two years ago."

He nodded. So she had arrived after him and Kara. She was still pretty new to the planet then, when he considered the grand scheme of things. She had done a fine job of mastering her abilities already though. Clark could still remember his difficulty adjusting to this planet, and the overwhelming effects it first had on him as a boy. And the memory of how Zod, after he had lost his protective helmet and had trouble controlling the voices in his mind, his eyes, his ears, when all the screeching sounds of this Earth had hit him was still fresh as well. A devilish, comical thought rose in Clark's mind, a thought that he was having a hard time keeping back. It slipped out.

"See?" he glanced at Gwen, "You had nothing to worry about. You weren't hiding while I thought I was the only one of my kind on Earth."

As soon as he said it, she gave him a scathing look and shot up from the desert. He rolled his eyes and followed hot on her heels. She didn't fly far this time, just skimmed over the top of the desert, creating a dust tail behind her. Clark was buffeted by sand, getting a face full of it before he pulled up to fly beside her again.

"Ok, I deserved that." He smiled grimly. She let her body slowly descend back to the desert surface until her toes touched the sand. Clark chuckled softly, hovering in the air and watching her like a hawk. She glanced his way and then turned up her nose, snubbing him.

"Gwen." He landed gently next to her. "It was a joke. I harbor no ill feelings, honest. Relax."

"I can never relax around you." She scoffed, lifting her chin.

"Come on." Clark wanted to tease her on her defiant pose. Dramatic much? She was shying like a deer though, so he forced himself to behave. "Tell me more, Gwen. Please."

She turned at the sound of his kind, deep voice.

"I stayed in Australia, because I wasn't sure what direction to take. There is so much…suffering here. How do you sort it all out, Kal? There's so much to do, so many people that need help. I can't possibly save everyone at once." Her gaze bore into his eyes, mirroring much of the same dilemma he faced as a uniquely qualified Kryptonian. "At least in Australia I could concentrate my efforts and make a difference in one area, one country."

"How come I never heard of you? The humans here go wild over anything unusual. How did you keep your arrival a secret?" Clark asked.

"No one saw me arrive, since that portal tossed me in the wild Bush. I chose to be more of an invisible vigilante. Helping where I could. Preventing crimes before they started, that kind of thing. Keeping my ear to the ground." Gwen smirked ruefully. "Don't be surprised my arrival wasn't noticed. There are a lot of unusual things coming to this planet recently. Aliens from the sky, old and new. Gifted individuals popping up everywhere."

"But none that are from Krypton." Clark reminded her.

"Yes. But I didn't entirely burry my head in the sand." Gwen looked away from him again. He didn't like that about her. How she couldn't bear to meet his eyes for too long. It was unsettling and maddening. He was just about to ask why she did that when she continued her narrative.

"I paid attention. After I settled myself in Australia, I monitored the world news. Especially your whereabouts. And Kara's. Kara made it easy for me. She's content in her city, content to protect it and work her alter-ego day job. To keep her connections with her adopted family. To live. To love." Clark waited, not daring to interrupt this pivotal moment. "You made it harder." Gwen's intense green eyes suddenly flicked up to his, revealing that flash of anguish again, which she tried to hide. She looked through him, rather than at him.

"Why?" Clark demanded.

"Well for one thing, you get around." She almost smiled. "You're Earth's mightiest protector. The symbol of hope. The Man of Steel. You don't just stay in Metropolis. You branch out, go where you're most needed."

"And that's a crime?" Clark raised a dark eyebrow.

"No, not at all. It just makes you harder to follow. Of course the media does a good job tracking you too, and even the civilians. Most everyone has a camera on their cellular phones these days." Gwen shrugged. "And then you battled Doomsday and died. And I died too." That last part she said so softly Clark had to strain to hear, even with his super senses.


	7. Chapter 7

Gwen started walking again, pounding the sand in stride. Clark tripped on his cape but managed to follow, entranced and baffled.

"Now you're really confusing me." He said, "Why would you die also? Where were you? Sure, I was out of it for a while after that hit, but I would have remembered you being nearby..."

"Out of it?" Gwen made a strangled sound in her throat. "Is that what you called it? You DIED, Kal! And I wasn't nearby for hundreds of miles. I let you die!"

"Hold on—" Clark's frown returned. He knew exactly where this self-pity train was heading and he was determined to derail it as quickly as possible. He reached out for her hand but caught empty air as she jumped backward.

"Now you've returned and there was no way I could let you die _again_ fighting those metal demons. So I revealed myself. End of story." Gwen said in a clipped voice. She began jogging, running away from him again. Clark shook his head, trying to clear the swirling thoughts from it.

"No! That's a terrible story. And it's far from over." He countered, flying forward and thrusting himself directly into her path. She stopped just shy of smashing against his broad chest.

"Those Parademons were re-engineered and set up by Lex Luther, you know." She stated, as if she were giving the daily weather report.

"I suspected that already." Clark nodded vehemently. "But that's not the point. The past is the past. Why hide, Gwen? Why hide your amazing existence, and…this?" he pointed at the symbol on his chest. Of course Gwen's cleverly stitched copy of Hope had disappeared along with the rest of her top when the Swiss doctors had operated on her. But beneath the swatch of white sheet tied around her torso her black pants were still intact, as well as her shiny black boots.

She flicked her green eyes down quickly. Clark tilted her chin up with a finger and made her look at him again, his eyes flashing. "You're driving me crazy. Gwen. What is it? Are you ashamed of being Kryptonian?"

"No." she scowled, her eyebrows coming together. "That's not it at all. You've got it all wrong."

"Then tell me what's right." He insisted fiercely. "And stop shrinking away from me."

"We can't all be as strong as you!" She shot back, her voice cracking. "I'm weak. And you need to forget about me."

"That's quite enough." Clark set his jaw. They glowered at each other in comfortable silence until the sun started to set. Neither of them moved a muscle.

Clark finally gave in. "If you're not going to tell me what you're really hiding behind, I'm going to guess. And I'm going to chase you around this planet until you give me an answer." She didn't doubt it, or that he was capable of doing just that either. "Is it the Kryptonite?" Clark's eyes softened as he considered possibilities. "Your heart?"

Gwen stepped back, realizing how close they had been standing, and gave an exaggerated roll of her eyes.

"You daft man—" she began. Then she must have thought better of it and started her train of thought over. "No Kal. Thanks to you, the Kryptonite is all out of me. I can feel it. Or the lack thereof." She sighed. "I don't need that green poison to make my heart weak. I'm simply not meant to be the hero you are. That's why I need to go. Back to my post in Australia. Back to how things were." She put a firm hand on his chest as he stepped in and opened his mouth to protest.

"Kal, I'm dead serious. I know what you're thinking but I can't come to Metropolis and play at being a team with you. The world needs you. Everyone needs you. They don't need me."

"They don't know you!" Clark exploded in frustration. "How could they miss something they don't know!"

"Exactly." Gwen's eyes were damp, tears glittering like slivers of silver. "Let's keep it that way. I don't want the limelight, Kal. Go back to your public. To Lois."

"Of all the stupid—" Clark stopped. Gwen was crying now. She shook her head.

"Don't you dare follow me." She whispered. And she was gone.

Clark let her go. This time. He stood rooted in the Sahara Desert, his eyes closed, letting the wind howl past him. He had a ton of information to process, but especially her last mix of sentences. She didn't just have confidence problems. She was dealing with something much deeper. Something raw. He obviously couldn't bully it out of her, that was for sure. And why had she mentioned Lois at the end? Lois…

Clark shot upward and sped toward North America in under a minute. Once he was over Metropolis he hovered above Lois' apartment first, gazing through the roof and listening for her. She was not there. He followed his next instinct back to the scene of Lex Luther's demented trap. The whole city block was still swarming with the usual array of law enforcement, investigators, reporters, and spectators that tended to converge after a fantastic event. Parademon body parts were still scattered around. Some lodged in buildings. Some crushing vehicles. Some littering the streets. A mess. Clark sighed through his nostrils. Messes like this continued to mount up behind him, all in the name of Justice.

He spotted Lois in a line of reporters, and even before he floated down to the street level, his cape fluttering gently like a red beacon, a hundred cameras were trained on him. People pointed up at him, waved, shouted and screamed. People that were not barricaded behind the police fence tried running toward him, under his boots. A thousand voices peppered him with exclamations and questions. He let the incoming sounds buffet his ears and flow through, as he processed every detail, every word, every lick of dialect and emotion. He kept some of the feedback and dismissed other parts from his supercomputer mind.

Clark allowed his feet to touch the hard pavement and strode authoritatively in Lois' direction, ignoring the hands grazing his suit, stroking his arms.

"Oh my gosh!" Lois jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck as soon as he got near. "I'm glad you're safe!" Clark allowed himself a thin smile, thinking it ironic how she worried about him when she was the more fragile one of them.

"I'm glad you're safe too." He repeated her sentiment, casting his steely gaze around. "And I know you have a hundred questions. I don't suppose you want the…" he dropped his voice even lower, playing with her like a cat. "Exclusive?"

 _Just playing around. Superman has a serious, dramatic side. It's a hard life, being a hero._


	8. Chapter 8

Lois' eyes lit up with feral hunger. "Do I!" she laughed. "Kal, of course I do!" Then she calmed herself down a notch. "Kal, you don't have to do anything you don't want to, but there IS a lot of new developments."

She made a point to call him Kal in front of people, even though after his apparent, temporary death, Clark hadn't returned to his job at the _Daily Planet._ It would have looked too strange to have disappeared from work for that duration and suddenly reappear at the same time Superman did. He would reinvent Clark Kent again when and if he needed that identity in public.

Right now he was way too busy being Superman full time, and on top of that he had to explain to the world just what had happened today. But he wasn't ready yet. He didn't want to make speeches and explain to the crowds that the Parademons were nothing but a personal Lex Luther vendetta, still under investigation. That there was another Kryptonian living on the planet. A mysterious female who was like Kal, with the same powers as him, but who wouldn't embrace the people of Earth and let them shower her with affection. Who was gifted, and fought for justice, but preferred to do it while hiding. How could he say all that? He wouldn't. Lois would.

Clark smiled thinly at the clamoring crowd, as if trying to charm them and assure them in some small way that things would be alright. Then he held out a strong arm for Lois. She giggled, stood on the top of his boots, and wrapped her own arms around his torso; little caring about the cameras and eyes watching as they slowly ascended.

Clark landed in a quiet park several blocks away and sat down on an empty bench. A smattering of people occupied the park, but those that pointed and stared at the Superman seemed to sense his melancholy and did not approach him.

Clark leaned his elbows on his knees and looked sidelong at Lois as she sat beside him.

"Talk to me." She urged, still smiling. She swallowed the words she really wanted to blurt: _"Tell me EVERYTHING!"_

"Lois," Clark sighed heavily, his voice serious. "I want you know that I'm only going to tell you facts. Not gossip. And there's some things I still need to do. To clean up. Some things I can't tell you yet."

"I understand. Do what you need to, Clark." Lois nodded eagerly, trying to hold herself in check. She perched on the edge of the bench, sitting on his cape and never taking her bright eyes off of him. He didn't look to see if she had a pad of paper or a recorder in her hand. It didn't matter. Although she was trying hard to be the supportive girlfriend, she was already in full reporter mode.

"I fought a legion of Parademons today." Kal began, frowning at the clouds above. "But I was not alone. Another Kryptonian is on this planet, besides me and my cousin." Lois' eyes widened but she did not interrupt. "She—we took some damage—she more than me so I took her up to the Sun. She had trouble healing, so long story short, I ended up in Switzerland and kind of pissed off some people at a hospital in order to get her help. You'll hear it on the world news, I'm sure."

"Wow. Is she _just_ like you, Clark, or is she different? Weaker?"

"She's just like me in every way." He replied briskly, the sudden need to defend Gwen surprising him. "But there are…things that we need to work out." He closed his eyes briefly and then stood.

"Look Lois, I'm sorry, but maybe this isn't the right time. I've got to go and do some more detecting of my own."

She stood too, looking ravenous and disappointed.

"I want you to tell the world—gently, Lois—that there is a third Kryptonian here. _Gently_ , Lois." Clark repeated, holding her gaze. "I know you can do that. We need to introduce her slowly." He paused. "And try not to stoke speculation."

"Of course." Lois breathed. "Is that all you can tell me though? What should I call her? What's her name? Is she…more of your family?"

"She's not related to me." Clark admitted. "I'm going to go ask Kara what she thinks now. And I don't think I should release her name just yet. It's—"

"Complicated." They both said in unison. Lois was doing admirably well, Clark thought, not hounding him for more information, though he knew it must be tormenting her inside to hold herself back.

"Clark?" Lois took his hand as he turned his face toward the sky, a sure sign that he was about to fly off. "Are you really ok?"

"Yes. I'm fine Lois." He bent and kissed her forehead quickly, then stepped back and rose upward. Lois waved once and then whipped out her cellular phone and began to speaking urgently into it. "Tell Perry to hold the front page."

Clark watched her until she became a speck in the city below, just another shape in the sea of moving people far beneath him.

He loved her, and with that came trust. He had to trust that she would go to work on this story, telling it like only she could. Part of him felt torn over letting anyone else know what had happened today, but it wasn't like Gwen had demanded his silence. No, on the contrary, she had practically dropped the responsibility in his lap and ran off again, leaving him to explain everything. Clark frowned. She was being rather selfish, he thought.

He decided to work through his feelings later, and instead flew back toward the damaged P&CC building, to grab the fallen body of a Parademon. He avoided the ring of people and cameras, trying to be as inconspicuous as he could. He succeeded in finding a Parademon specimen caught in a tree a few yards from the building.

"Kara?" he spoke out loud as he floated slowly back up above the skyscrapers. "Can you talk right now?" He knew if she was fine tuning her own supersensory powers, she could pick out his voice at a moment's notice, no matter how far away they were or no matter how much interference was around her. He waited a few minutes. Then his cousin's reply reached him, her musical voice echoing in his mind.

"Why so serious? Didn't you just save the world again? Meet me at the abandoned car factory behind Robin's Burger Barn. I'll be on the roof."

"Good choice." Kal had no idea where "Robin's Burger Barn" was, not being overly familiar with Kara's city, but he knew he could figure it out just by sensing his cousin's location. He tended to leave her alone for the most part, not on purpose, but because they were both so busy living their own double lives. They didn't meet in person more than a few times a year, but kept in touch by exchanging old fashioned emails or letters whenever they needed to chat.

Kal quickly covered the distance from Metropolis to the designated meeting place in seconds. He landed softly on the roof and set down the Parademon, glancing around. Kara landed in front of him, dressed not in her Supergirl suit, but in hot pink yoga pants and a red hooded jacket.

"Hi Kal!" she beamed, her whole face lighting up as they hugged quickly. "I was just leaving the gym. Gotta keep up appearances, you know. What brings you here?"

* * *

 _And now we have Supergirl in the story! Yay! More DC characters to come._


	9. Chapter 9

Clark told Kara everything about his encounter with Gwen. Everything she had said, even the details he had omitted from Lois. _Especially_ the details he omitted from Lois…he needed his cousin to have the full picture in order for them both to try to help the other Kryptonian. Kara listened intently and clapped a hand over her mouth, holding it there in wide eyed wonder until the end of his narrative.

"Wow." She said at last. "Gw'len, huh? She's another one of us! That's—that's wonderful!"

"But she's troubled. And stubborn." Clark sighed. "Help me find her again. Maybe if we _both_ talked to her—"

Kara's smile slowly faded and she tucked a strand of blonde hair behind one ear. "Maybe we should give her a bit of time and think about this. No offense, Kal, but from what you described, I don't think we should come on that, uh, strong..."

Clark frowned, not at all pleased with his cousin's reluctance. "What do you mean? We're her species! She should—"

"Kal, she tried to fly away from you _multiple_ times. She doesn't want to talk. She wants to stay anonymous."

"I don't see why." Clark huffed, "I'm thrilled to know she's on the planet. But _she's_ being obstinate and overdramatic!"

"I know, I know. Give me a day or two to mull this all over," Kara said softly. "Then I'll contact you, ok?"

"Ok." Clark nodded finally. They exchanged a few more words and said goodbye. Then Clark jetted to his next stop, Gothem City.

He landed on a particular rooftop and turned on the giant spotlight with the shape of a black bat stretched across it. He waited for a half hour, growing more and more irritated before he heard soft breathing and turned to see the Bat Man, all decked out, striding toward him.

"Can't sneak up on you, can I." Bruce said.

"No. But thanks for coming." Clark kicked the bat signal sourly and the light blinked off. "I could have written your name in the sky or something, but it's getting dark."

Bruce's thin lips twitched behind the mask. "Well, not that I wouldn't have appreciated that gesture, but you know we could just as easily exchange phone numbers..." he flicked his eyes down to the mangled lump on the roof between them. "What's this?"

Clark rolled over the body of the Parademon he had brought with his booted toe. "Just an old acquaintance. Look familiar?"

"Yeah, like a bad penny." Bat Man growled.

"I spent my morning decommissioning two hundred of these." Clark began. "Half of them were equipped with Kryptonite claws."

 _Actually…I counted. There was only one hundred ninety-three, Kal. And forty two of them had claws. That's not half._

Clark's head whipped to the West as his ears picked up Gwen's soft voice floating on the breeze. That little spitfire! She was somewhere nearby, watching them! It only took him a second to scope Gothem City with his super sight and pinpoint her shadowy form, crouched against a different rooftop two miles away.

 _Don't give me away, Kal._ She warned.

"What's wrong?" Bruce was eyeing Clark suspiciously now. His fists were balled and his body tense, as if ready to spring into action. Or a fight. He never knew which one he should be expecting lately with the moody Superman.

"Just…I heard something." Clark slowly faced forward and motioned to the Parademon again. "Bruce, I have reason to believe that Lex Luther is behind this. He did break out of prison a few weeks ago."

"I know. I heard. I also heard you had some _unexpected_ help during your little adventure this morning." The Bat Man bent and made a big show of examining the Parademon, when he was really waiting and giving Clark a chance to defend himself.

Clark sighed, deliberately not glancing in Gwen's general direction. "Perhaps I can tell you more about that development later. Right now I need you to take this thing back to your lab and find out how Lex got it to work again, and what he's up to. Use all your tricks."

"Well obviously it was re-programed not to hone in on fear, but to find a Kryptonian. Or two." Bruce said dryly. He was no fool. "I'll take a look at it."

"I'd appreciate it." Clark turned to go. That was the way things were between him and the Bat Man. Get business done and not stand around chatting idly. Easy.

"Are you unscathed then?" Bruce straightened. "You mentioned Kryptonite claws. Luther must have been hard pressed to find that much green."

Clark kept his back to the Bat Man, his red cape catching a breeze and stretching away from him, as if invisible fingers were begging him to go another direction. He glanced over his shoulder.

"Careful. I might start to think you actually cared about me." Clark muttered. Bruce chuckled as Superman rocketed off into the dark sky.

Clark tried to sense Gwen, curious if she had left Gothem City. To search for her in the vicinity was easy. He only had to dial up his super sight and hearing to pick out the most glaring, unique being from the millions of normal humans on this continent. But he couldn't sense that much power now, other than the potent glow he felt radiating from Kara over in National City, so that meant Gwen must have flown back halfway across the globe.

He returned to Metropolis instead. Lost in his own thoughts, he flew laps around it. It was the middle of the night. The city was pretty quiet, just the way he liked it. There were a handful of petty crimes taking place, but nothing that the local law enforcement couldn't handle. Trespassing, speeding, driving while intoxicated. Small stuff.

Clark finally landed on Lois' balcony and let himself in. Glancing through the walls, he could immediately tell she was not present so he looked further and spotted her in her office of the _Daily Planet_ building _._ She was burning the midnight oil, working on his new story. What a girl. Clark peeled off his super suit and took a cold shower, relishing the soothing water on his tired body.

The next thing he knew Lois was sweeping into the front door at 7:00AM, waving a copy of _The Daily Planet_ in his face.

"Clark! Look at this! What do you think?" she laughed, all bubbly and excited as she leaped on him. Clark was stretched out on the living room couch, dozing. He smiled and sat up, taking the paper from her.

Lois' new story had been printed on the front page. No surprise there. The bold headline announced "New Superwoman Teams Up With Superman". Clark narrowed his eyes.

"Lois, that title alone is misleading. She didn't _join_ me. We're not a team."

"Oh just keep reading." Lois slapped his arm playfully.

Clark did. The rest of the article went on to say that the mysterious woman Metropolis saw fighting alongside Superman was another Kryptonian like him. The article was lengthy but tastefully worded. It stressed that the new woman was a friend to Earth and that the public had nothing to worry about. In fact, it hinted, the public should welcome her with open arms if she made another appearance. More details about this woman were to come, the article promised. The world was certainly lucky to have another gifted protector in its midst.

Clark set down the newspaper and leaned back.

"Well?" Lois scooted closer to him on the couch. "What do you think?"

Clark considered a moment. Her article had flirted with speculation, but for the most part she had told the truth as he had presented it.

"It's good." He said at last. "The planet will be tantalized."

Lois' lips formed a pout. "You don't like it."

"I don't know, it still—" Clark grasped for words. "It still feels like an open can of worms, as your Earth saying goes."

"Well of course it does!" Lois slid into his lap and draped her arms around his neck. "You didn't give me the whole story, Clark, so people are still going to go wild and bombard you with more questions. They won't be satisfied—I won't be satisfied—until we know _everything_ that's going on."

Clark nodded, gazing off into the distance. "There's going to be changes." He looked a little sad.

Lois stroked his hair and kissed his lips, waiting. She was used to the high stress demands of his profession, but she was kind enough to be quiet and let him deal with things in his own way.

"I for one am glad there's another Kryptonian here to help you out." She said after the silence had stretched too long. "Maybe you won't be so overworked and we can spend more time together."

Clark looked at her, surprised. Then he tackled her down onto the couch amid her screaming laughter.

* * *

 _And now we have Bat Man in the story! This is a slow burn drama. I'll do more chapters with mixed adventure, action and Clark getting to know someone better._


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Even if I'm not getting any readers, I decided to continue this story. It's fan fic, right? I'm just going to have fun with it. If you like my story please comment. Also if you notice any typos feel free to PM me. I don't mind.

* * *

Kara was as good as her word and contacted Kal via email to meet her the very next evening. Her summons surprised him, especially since he had gotten the impression that she needed some time to think about this new…development in their lives.

Either way, Clark was dying to hear what his cousin had to say. No amount of distraction from Lois, immersing himself in the world news, or soaring aimlessly on jet streams high above in the cold, moist clouds yesterday had dampened his tumultuous emotions or caused him to stop thinking about Gw'len. Part of him didn't want to stop thinking about her. Another Kryptonian on his planet – his and Kara's world – was too exciting. And terrifying.

He flew eagerly to National City at dusk and met his cousin under a long suspension bridge. They hovered on top of the water, boot tips brushing the river's spray as they defied Earth's light gravity. Heavy traffic whizzed by over their heads. Horns blared. Kara was outfitted in her suit this time instead of yoga gear. Their matching red capes whispered softly in the air currents under the bridge, tugging at their shoulders with each gust of passing traffic above.

"What did you find out?" Clark asked, seeing the amused expression on his cousin's face and the mischievous gleam in her eyes. His own eyes narrowed. "You went to her, didn't you." He said it as a statement, not a question.

Kara smiled and nodded. "Yes. We had a little girl talk—"

"You had a girl tal—KARA!" Clark thundered. He wasn't sure why he felt a sudden flood of anger where Gwen was concerned. Was he honestly afraid the other Kryptonian would hurt his cousin? Or was it the other way around? That his cousin would threaten Gw'len?

"Relax Kal," Kara giggled softly, "It's not what you think. No one got hurt. I mulled over our conversation yesterday, and I figured that I should try to talk to her alone. Feel her out. See why she was acting so weird around you. I mean, if I was in her shoes, I would be over the friggin' moon knowing that you and I—other Kryptonians—existed! Wouldn't you?"

"What happened." Clark snapped, flying forward a step. He crossed his arms, trying to tamp down on the anxiety churning in his stomach. He hated feeling this way. Weak. Confused.

"She's certainly a tough nut to crack." Kara wound a strand of hair around her finger. "Took me hours to actually get her to speak plain. No, alcohol was not involved, and man can she rack up a sushi bill—!"

"Get to the point." Clark's eyebrows came together sharply.

"Okay, okay. You were right about her being, shall we say…shy. She prefers the anonymity of working alone, in Australia and in Japan too, apparently—it was there we had the amazing sushi—and she claims she can't stand to be near you."

"What?" Clark looked pained, the irritation instantly draining from his taut frame as if he had been struck. "What do you mean?"

"She can't stand you." Kara repeated calmly, as if that explained everything. "I'm under the impression that she didn't mind me though. She might even team up with me too, if she had to."

"Why you?"

"Because I'm a girl!" Kara's eyes danced merrily.

"That's—what—what does that have to do with anything?" Clark spluttered. His fingers curled into fists.

His cousin giggled but Clark discerned a nervous note to it. He stilled.

"Kara, you're hiding something. Tell me."

Kara inhaled deeply and then let the breath out in a whoosh that could have blown the top off a mountain if she hadn't been restraining her powers. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes!"

"Fine. But you won't like it." Kara rolled her shoulders . "Kal, the reason why she won't come to Metropolis, the reason why she needs to stay far away from you is because she's in love with you."

"Nonsense!" Clark swore colorfully and Kara had the gall to laugh again.

"No, it's the truth! You wanted the truth! Oh Kal, if you could see your face right now!"

"Not funny." He protested, clenching his strong jaw. "It's-it's the last thing I expected. Are you absolutely sure?"

"Oh quite." Kara nodded, trying to wipe the smile off of her rosy apple cheeks. "Gw'len didn't straight out say it of course, but like I said, we bonded and girls are able to pick up on these kinds of things. Especially a girl like me with heightened awareness and senses. Gw'len couldn't lie even if she wanted to. You might as well know all the facts."

"I'm not sure it helps." Clark frowned severely at his boots, as if they held the answers to the host of clamoring thoughts riddling his mind. He already wanted to forget what Kara had just told him.

"I know. It further complicates your agenda." His cousin agreed.

Clark's eyes snapped back up to hers. "What do you mean, my _agenda_?"

"Stop scowling or you're going to permanently ruin your pretty face." Kara replied. She opened her mouth to begin another sentence but a caravan of diesel rigs thundered by over them, horns honking and engines roaring. "HEY! No engine braking on this bridge!" Kara screamed upward at the road's under surface. "That's the rules! Read the signs!" She didn't say it loud enough for any of the truck drivers to actually hear her, although she could have amplified her voice above normal human levels.

She turned back to her sulking male cousin.

"Kal, do you ever get tired of taking care of your city?" she asked. Kal blinked, thrown by the sudden change in conversation. "I'm kidding. Well…sort of. Sometimes I want to take a vacation and fly away from it for a while. You know what I mean?"

Clark nodded and relaxed his posture. He let his arms hang at his sides.

Kara brightened again, her dazzling smile returning. "Hey I know! I could ask Gw'len to be like a substitute teacher, and come fill in—"

"Kara!"

Her laughter echoed around him for a minute. Then she covered her mouth and composed herself.

"What agenda were you talking about?" Clark sighed, suddenly looking very weary for the healthy, powerfully built Kryptonian he was supposed to be.

"The one staring you right in the face, Kal. Obviously it would be fantastic if you and Gw'len got together." Kara said. Kal's deadly look nearly made her break her composure and laugh again. Instead she talked faster, before he could interrupt. "Together, as in protecting Metropolis and this planet as a team. You would be wonderful! She's close to your age, talented, and strong. From what you told me, she's got some real fighting skills. Not some stick-figured doll, no sir, even if she is a looker. Also she's the only other female of our kind we know about. You could have a family!"

Kara blurted that last sentence in a rush and barely escaped Clark's clutches at he lunged for her. She dove into the river, Clark in hot pursuit. She figured going under into the channel was a better choice than exposing her and Clark's little meeting to the rest of National City. As they darted down toward the murky depths, Kal succeeded in catching a handful of her cape. Kara screamed in delight underwater, which only created a cloud of bubbles. He wouldn't let go so she put on a burst of speed and towed him roughly through the river on a hazardous path that would have drowned and pommeled a normal human black and blue until they reached the nearest abandoned tributary.

The two cousins trudged out onto a dirt embankment; Clark's face still looking like a thunderstorm and Kara coughing a little. There was no signs civilization around them at the moment. The ocean stretched out, dark and frothy beside them. Stars glittered in the vast night sky.

Clark dropped to his knees in the soft sand, water rolling off his suit and cape. His bright eyes glazed over as he tilted his head up and stared at the black sky.

"Kara…"

"What Kal?" Kara plopped down near him and arranged her red cape underneath her to sit on. She spat river water out of her mouth with a grimace and waited for him to speak again. "Hey, what?" she speared him with an intense look as she peeled off her boots and shook water out of them. "That was quite a reaction, Kal." She waited and he remained silent. "Maybe I was out of line with that last comment. I know you like Lois."

Clark closed his eyes and ground his teeth together, not moving from his dejected posture.

Kara waited a little more. "Okay, so maybe I was a lot out of line. Still. Cuz, you look like the weight of the world is on your shoulders."

"Feels like it." Clark huffed. "I don't know what direction to take."

Kara wrung moisture out of her hair and arranged it over one of her shoulders.

"I wish you hadn't—" Clark began,

"What?" Kara frowned. "You wish I hadn't told you the truth? You wanted to know! You would have pried it out of me, so snap out of it! I love you, but I don't love this melodramatic version of you. The way I see it, you can either pretend your encounter with Gwen never happened, go back to Metropolis, live with Lois, and save the world like normal. Or you can pursue Gwen and see where that goes. Up to you how far you want to pursue her…" Kara paused, reigning in her sharp tone as she regarded her younger cousin. "Look. Even if you choose not to do anything, I'm sure she'll stay in her corner of the globe and leave you alone."

"Unless other major alien attack happens to this planet. And that next attack is so big it takes all three of us to—"

"Kal, you've been hanging around too many doomsday news reporters." Kara grinned, trying to lighten his mood. "We're gifted and we have responsibilities, yes. But you can't worry about what _could_ happen every day, Kal. You've got to draw the line somewhere."

Clark opened his eyes and looked at her. They sat in front of each other in companionable silence for a long while. Her words rang with wisdom. Sometimes it was easy for him to forget that Kara was actually his older cousin. That she had taken care of him and guided him thought rough patches back on Krypton, before either of them had made it to Earth. Her body looked younger than his now, but only because she had been trapped in a wormhole and unaffected by time while his had grown older than hers.

Clark leaned back on his heels and grabbed a fistful of cool mud, pressing it in his fist and watching the silky substance fall through the cracks in his fingers. He scooped up handful after handful, slowly repeating the process, thinking hard.

"You're right." He said after a while. Kara smirked and stood, brushing her suit off and shaking out her cape. She strode up to him and offered him her hand. He took it and she hauled him to his feet, swiping lumps of mud off of the front of his chest to clean the red and gold symbol of Hope as best as possible.

"Thank you." He nodded at his cousin, his eyes sparkling with newfound clarity. Kara grinned back at him.

"Anytime, cuz." She cocked her head, listening to something behind her, in National City. "Guess I should go." She wrapped one arm around his broad chest and pounded him twice on the back. "Till next time?"

"Yep." Clark agreed.

"Where will you go?" Kara asked him, her boots leaving the sand as she slowly ascended a few feet, preparing to fly off.

Clark returned her sly smile. "Don't worry about me. I'm going hunting."


	11. Chapter 11

Clark flew faster than a speeding bullet across the wide continents. The closer he came to Australia the more his supersensory powers picked up Gwen's power. It was intoxicating. He knew before his eyes even told him so that she was in a small roadside market, a rest stop set up in the Outback.

To avoid frightening anyone with a dramatic appearance, he touched down miles outside the market and darted into a clothing booth, snatching a few pieces and leaving some money. Using his super speed he was in and out before the shopkeeper even glanced up. Back in the middle of nowhere, away from human eyes, Clark outfitted himself in khaki cargo pants and an oversized black hoodie. He tucked his cape and suit under this disguise and pulled the hood low over his forehead.

Then he walked purposefully with his hands stuffed into his sweatshirt pockets. He slipped on a pair of dark sunglasses as soon as he entered the market as an afterthought. He wove his way through the multitude of pop-up shops and people toward the center of the small crowd, where he could sense Gwen the strongest. Without his Kryptonian suit and cape on full display, people didn't give him a second glance. Those that did tried to sell him something, chattering in their language.

Closer and closer Clark came to Gwen. When he at last pinpointed her, he saw she was leaning over a jewelry vendor's table, studying something intently. He was able to walk right up to her and bump her shoulder with his.

"Looks nice. You should buy that." He whispered under his breath. The muscles of her body went rigid, but otherwise she didn't acknowledge him. She continued to stubbornly finger the chain of a pink coral necklace.

"How much?" she asked the Aboriginal vendor. They talked price back and forth rapidly but she shook her head and finally stepped away without purchasing the piece. Then she whirled and grabbed Clark's elbow in an iron tight grip that made even him wince and pulled him roughly a few paces away from the stalls.

"What the HELL are you doing here?" she hissed, long lashed green eyes glaring at him from under the brim of her floppy straw hat. A red ribbon ran around the hat, the same warm shade of the sleeveless sun dress she was wearing. Clark couldn't help noticing how well the outfit complimented her dark complexion. His eyes automatically traced the lines of her strong, arched neck and the smooth toned skin of her exposed shoulders and arms before he realized it. Luckily she couldn't see what he had just done behind his sunglasses.

"It was easy to find you." He answered vaguely, turning his head side to side to check their surroundings and to hopefully take his mind off of her muscular body. The temperature was at least 90˚ Fahrenheit here. No wonder she was showing some skin. He realized he was sweltering in this silly sweatshirt and pants—

"Answer the question, Kal." She bit back darkly, stepping forward to peer under his hood. "Yes, I know it's you even under that stupid disguise."

"But it works, doesn't it?" Clark's lip spread into a cock-sure grin that would have had the hearts of most girls melting. Gwen, however stomped purposefully on his left foot and ground her heel down. "Ow!" Clark said. "Watch it!"

"I said—"

"Don't act so tough. You had your guard down. I shouldn't have been able to walk right up to you." Clark retorted. "What if I was an enemy?"

"I can take care of myself!" Gwen spat defensively, "You know this is my territory."

"Oh so we have territories now? Good to know. Should I bring out the whole 'This planet is too big for us' line—"

They were standing nose to nose now, trying to argue heatedly but quietly. "Why are you here?" Gwen prodded, digging her strong fingers deeper into Clark's bicep.

"I had to see you."

Gwen's black eyebrows hit the troposphere. "Whatever for?"

"Just what I said. Am I not speaking English?" Clark knew he was having way too much fun toying with the other Kryptonian and couldn't wipe the stupid grin off his face. "We could talk in our native tongue if you want. It might be refreshing."

Gwen opened her mouth to doubtless give her own spicy retort but a vendor selling sticks of wafer dipped in hard chocolate came near the couple and waved the treats in front of their noses, grinning and babbling. Clark used his best "sorry, not interested" body language until the vendor moved on.

He leaned closer to Gwen and caught a subtle whiff of citrusy notes. Was that her perfume? Shampoo? "How are you?" He said.

"What. You think this is social hour? I told you I'm fine!" She arched her back to counter his posture, trying to keep a healthy distance between their faces. They were breathing the same air at this point.

She must have realized how they looked and released her iron grip on his arm to jump backward, frowning. "What do you want, Kal? Go away!"

"You're fully healed?"

"YES!"

"I heard you like sushi." Clark continued to throw her off balance with his forward motion. For every step she took back, he took two forward, leaning over her like a tree. She was practically doing the Limbo in the middle of the dirt packed street now. She hissed in irritation.

"Kal!"

"We need to talk."

Gwen growled and popped up like a released spring, shoving her hands into Kal's chest and pushing him away from her. He recovered quickly and remained upright, digging his boots into the dirt to keep from sliding from the impact.

"Don't you know what 'no' means?" she said, a little too loudly. People were starting to take notice, for they were no longer just two normal, unassuming humans having a rational discussion in the middle of the street. Now they were two abnormally strong humans trying hard to look like normal humans while having a full-blown tiff in the middle of the street.

Gwen could sense that a tall Aboringinal man with faded yellow shorts hovering to her 4:00 was seconds away from stepping in and doing the whole "is this man bothering you?" routine with Clark. She was not looking forward to witnessing that performance.

"Kal, you're causing a scene." She ground out between clenched teeth, adjusting her hat nervously, "I'm anonymous here. Have a little respect—"

The infuriatingly handsome Kryptonian male just flashed another grin and stayed put, hands shoved deep into his khakis. His stance was solid. She tried to shove her way around him and walk away but he stepped neatly into her path again, a wall of pure muscle and unchecked power.

Now vendors and pedestrians alike were turning to point and whisper to each other. "Look at those two. Look at the rude man and the aggressive woman in the red dress…" Gwen's super sharp hearing could pick up every whispered comment, every language. The questions poured into her ears from every side: "What are they doing? Who are they? Are they fighting? Should we help? Whose side should we pick? Do you think she can handle him?"

"I'm not leaving until we talk." Clark murmured. Clearly he could hear the whispers too. She couldn't read his eyes behind his dark sunglasses but even without that she knew he wasn't bluffing. "We'll have this discussion right here. Right now. Doesn't matter to me—"

Gwen hauled back and slapped him. The irate feeling came over her so suddenly she was shocked afterward, staring at the red mark that bloomed and faded on Kal's clean shaven jaw. He didn't even flinch. The humans around them did though and surged over, a wave of bodies and various voices:

"Ma'am are you ok?"

"What's going on?"

"Hey, take it somewhere else!"

Gwen swore softly and snatched a handful of Clark's sweatshirt sleeve, once again towing him away with her. He didn't protest, a ghost of a grin still evident on his lips. She hated that he had won this round. She wished she could close her eyes and he would go away, but he was here, he was real, and he was stubbornly causing chaos in an otherwise sleepy little settlement.

They left a trail of concerned people behind them, ignoring them. Gwen's long strides carried her briskly past the vendor's stalls and into the wide, beckoning desert. Clark matched her pace, keeping silent and not bothering to free himself from her grip.

When they were out of human eyesight, Gwen let go of his sleeve and rocketed up into the clear blue Australian sky. It was a beautiful day for flying, but she got no joy out of it as she concentrated on keeping her straw hat on her head with one hand and gathering the flapping hem of her red dress close to her long legs with the other. She stopped ascending in the air at 30,000 feet.

Clark rose up a second later to hover in front of her. He had let his entire street style disguise travel away on the wind and was once again resplendent in his iconic and suit and cape. Seeing it made Gwen feel a twinge of homesickness.

"Kal—" Gwen started to say, but he glanced up and then shot forward to envelop her in his thick arms, dragging her down amid protest to 28,000 feet.

"Commercial flight out of Korea." He murmured in her ear, arms still locked like a vice around her. They both watched a sleek blue and white jet whoosh by over their heads, where Gwen had been a second before. "You didn't hear that?" he said as the whine of the jet's engines faded away. "You've really got to hone your senses—"

"I don't need your heroics!" Gwen screwed up her stunning features into a very unattractive snarl and squirmed against Clark's hold, still struggling to hold on to her hat and dress. This outfit was not made for flying. She became aware of how his tall body was pressed so close to hers. She could feel the sizzling heat of his Kryptonian blood through their clothing, the pressure of his steel muscles, his soft puffs of breath against her earlobe. He was strength and safety and everything she wanted…fantasized about. Being held by the only Kryptonian male on the planet was worlds different than any interaction she could ever have with human males. They were fragile compared to what she was. What Kal was.

She realized she had gone slack in her brief reverie and he was doing all the flying, holding her tightly against him to keep her from falling out of the sky.

"So, can we talk now?" Clark asked, a small grin playing across his lips. Damn him.

She tilted her head up a fraction to meet his intense gray eyes. Earth's warm sun was illuminating his chiseled face in white hot light, defining his brown eyebrows, jawline, lips. Her heart rate sped up, leaping away on her like a stampede of horses. Why did Kal have to be so handsome? Being mere inches away from his face arrested her breath—they wouldn't get much "talking" done if she allowed herself to freeze like a fan girl.

Gwen dashed those dreamy emotions aside and took charge of her body, shoving hard against Clark's chest to break apart.

"Not like this." She gasped.

* * *

A/N. I thought this scene was hilarious and I re-worked it about five times before posting it. Gwen and Clark are both stubborn individuals. Let me know if you like it or if you want more of this fic about Superman.


	12. Chapter 12

Clark took a step back on solid air. His hand snapped up to catch her straw hat just as prevailing wind ripped it off her head and tried to carry it triumphantly away.

"I can't do this." Gwen moaned, her lithe body curling into itself like a defeated paperclip. "You're so…"

"So what?" Clark stayed perfectly still. His red cape snapped behind him.

Gwen straightened up and put on her mental armor once more to shoot him a glare.

"I want to get to know you." Clark began sincerely,

"No! Get it through your smart brain. Whenever I see you, all you do is tear me apart!" Gwen spat. "I'm stronger without you."

Clark's dark eyebrows narrowed.

"What can I do?"

"Stay away!" Gwen choked out a laugh. "Duh!"

"Let me say something." Clark flew a foot closer again, and she drifted backwards to keep equal distance between them. She was still clutching her red dress in one hand. Her honey toned skin shimmered and glowed in the Sun's brilliant light. Clark could help thinking she looked like a goddess in a red dress…a continuously irate goddess.

"I'm sorry." He flew toward her again. They passed into a cloud and the sunlight dimmed as wet hazy condensation enveloped them like a cold embrace. "I'm sorry Gw'len. For all of it. For all you went though. For not being there when you landed on this world. For not sharing in your pain. For continuing to cause you pain with my presence."

"It's not your fault." She gulped, blinking. Moisture droplets clung to her black eyelashes. Clark was mesmerized watching them. "You don't have to say sorry."

"I'll say whatever it takes to help you." He said fiercely. "Anything." He tore his intense gaze from her for a second. "This is not a game to me. I swear by Krypton. I want to be in your life. Please let me."

Gwen made a soft scoffing noise in her throat. She was trying valiantly to hold onto the threads of righteous anger and stay irritated with him. But her arsenal of snarky comments had fled her mind. She contemplated her sandals before lifting her eyes to his.

"What do you even mean by all those fancy words?"

Clark didn't get to reply. They both halted as a distant screech rolled upward and reached their sensitive ears. A distress call of a thousand voices. A large number of humans were in trouble, all at once, all at the same place.

Gwen glanced down and instantly reversed flying, dropping through the cloud layers to 5,000 feet above sea level where she could see the Earth clearly. She hovered there, acutely aware that her annoying crush had followed closely and was standing in the air behind her.

They were above the Northwestern boarder of Australia, but Gwen could sense that the distress call wasn't on that continent.

There it was again. A resounding cry of many terrified people—over 3,000 now that she and Clark were closer to Earth and could sift through the voices—coming from the West. In the heart of the Indian Ocean.

"I'm going." Clark announced unnecessarily. "Will you come with me?" he slid around her, his cape brushing against the left side of her body as he moved. Goosebumps instantly flared on her exposed skin at the soft touch. She gritted her teeth. _Get it together Gwen!_

"In this?" Gwen joked, indicating her sun dress. "No way. I have to find something to change into. I'm not sporting a perfectly grafted suit from our home world like you…" her eyes roamed up and down Clark's body, taking in his suit and everything else she constantly admired about him.

Clark noticed. "I'll get you a suit." He promised, his lips quirking into a small smile. "At least you didn't say no."

"Hurry up, will you?" Gwen growled, flapping a hand at him. "Those humans won't save themselves."

Clark twisted and trained his eyes on the huge expanse of the Indian Ocean, pinpointing the cry. "Ocean liner." He said. "Dead in the water. Severe structural damage…they're trying to launch lifeboats without much success."

"Get going." Gwen repeated, giving him a dirty look. "They need their hero."

"Will you come?" Clark glanced over his shoulder at her.

"Yeah yeah!" Gwen snatched her straw hat from his hand. The brim was crumpled and cracked in places from his too tight grip on it. Damn man didn't know his own strength. She threw him an irreverent salute and darted back toward Australian mainland.

With doubt still high in his mind, Clark jetted in the opposite direction. Would she really join him later? Or was she taking this golden opportunity to blow him off and go into hiding again? It might actually be nice to have her assistance on this operation…

Within minutes Clark had flown across the tumultuous Indian Ocean and reached the ocean liner. The _R.M.S. Adventurer_ according to the name emblazoned on its pearly white stern. The cries of panicked humans assaulted his ears anew. Screams turned from "Help" to "There's Superman!" as he approached, flying low above the waves. More people noticed him as he circled the gigantic ship, using his x-ray vision and other super senses to assess the problem.

People hung over the railing on all the ship's decks calling to him, waving frantically, sobbing openly. "Superman! Save us!" The majority of the voices were British. This was a British ocean liner after all, a classic mail and passenger ship and one of the last of its kind. Great Britain held on to many of their traditions; a country with a lengthy history that not even the Great Wars could have stamped out when so many other country's boarders had changed or been renamed.

Superman quickly spotted three yellow lifeboats in the water, filled to bursting with terrified passengers. Twenty to a boat, in some more. And all dipping and tilting in the rough water. The ocean was not friendly today. One lifeboat was still tethered to the sinking mother ship by a rope that wouldn't release. A man was standing up in that raft trying to saw it away.

Clark's initial scan of the disaster had given him a wealth of information, the key pieces being: the ocean liner was taking on water underneath from a jagged line sliced across its breadth. And it was carrying 3,000 plus passengers and crew who were woefully unprepared to handle their liner's current predicament.

In fact, as Clark rose up above the ship to assess it from above he spotted what must have been the captain a few members of the captain's crew locked up in the steering house. People were banging on the door, demanding answers, demanding salvation.

"SUPERMAN! SUPERMAN!" the people screamed, reached toward him, waving at him, pleading for him. Begging for him to notice them. A few bolder, dumber ones got out cameras to record his appearance, content to witness what happened next.

Clark whipped his head to the left as one of the overloaded yellow lifeboats suddenly capsized. It was the one partially tethered to the _Adventurer,_ bobbing on the waves upside down now _._ The twenty-one people in it tumbled into the cold water, shouting and coughing.

He rushed to them and began pulling people out by their armpits and setting them on the top deck of the ship. He ignored their protests as well as their overwhelming thanks and appreciation, peeled off limbs wrapped tightly around him and slipped underwater to chase one sinking young woman who didn't have either a life jacket or swimming skills apparently.

But once all twenty-one humans were safely back on the doomed ship, and alive and well—including the woman who had ingested a few gallons of sea water—he could turn his attention back to the larger matter. The ship itself. He had to stop the source of the disaster. Still standing on the top deck of the ship, Clark considered questioning the captain to get a reading on what the apparent authority had done so far when another yellow lifeboat descended from the air and dropped down on his toes. The people inside yelped and scrambled out, staring upward.

Not at him. At a flying woman with jet black hair blowing in the breeze, a mask that was clearly a black scarf with holes hastily cut out tied around her eyes and nose. Black skinny jeans and a turtleneck sweater completed her costume.

"Looks like you could use a hand." Gw'len nodded down at him. Clark grinned back stupidly and bounced up into the air to her level, facing her. She came! She really came! Here he was thinking she would stand him up.

"Stop getting into the lifeboats!" Gwen amplified her voice, arms akimbo as she glared down between their legs at the sea of awestruck people. "The sea is too rough for that today, okay people?"

"SUPERWOMAN!" the people clamored, some taking snapshots wildly, some reaching up to try to touch her boots. She was smart and hovered out of their reach though. A move Clark could definitely appreciate. People got uncomfortably handsy around him too.

"Who are you, Superwoman?"

"Where did you come from?"

Gwen provided them nothing but a gentle smile before her face hardened again and she ignored the whole lot, turning her full attention to the Man of Steel in front of her. The crazy man had a dumb look on his face, like a worshiping fan boy.

Her exaggerated eye roll quickly brought Clark back to his senses. "You get the last lifeboat. I'm going down under to repair the ship…you know, underwater, not down under as in Austra…never mind." Clark fumbled, feeling oddly out of his element in front of her, in front of all these eyes. Where was his solid hero persona?

He smothered his embarrassment by arcing over the side of the ship and diving into the raging sea, holding his breath and keeping his eyes open as he swam underneath the ocean liner. She was definitely split. What had sliced a ship like this and caused this extent of damage? Clark took in the jagged gouge that reached twenty feet high, water rushing steadily into the fifty foot wide opening.

He activated his heat vision, channeling the solar energy of Earth's sun stored in his Kryptonian cells into a red hot beam. The water swirled and sizzled around him, becoming a mass of confusing bubbles and steam as it boiled but did not weld the metal edges of the wound together.

Clark returned to the surface amid a spray of water and looked around for Gwen. She had fetched the last lifeboat and deposited it just as unceremoniously as she had the last one on _Adventurer's_ top deck. And she was flying in place, glaring daggers at the humans beneath her and arguing loudly with them. Wonderful…

"So help me, I will confiscate the rest of your lifeboats if you don't stop launching—you! Yes you, I see you there. Stop prepping that launch! You're just creating more work for me!" Gwen yelled, pointing at crew members.

"We're on a sinking ship, Superwoman! What do you expect us to do?" A deck hand screamed back at her, jumping up and down in the air. "I don't see YOU saving us!"

"Did you not just hear what I SAID!"

Clark zoomed over to Gwen and his appearance immediately appeased the frustrated and terrified crowd.

"SUPERMAN!" they greeted him. He was the favorite.

"I can't repair it. I'm just vaporizing the water." Clark told Gwen softly, bending his head to her left ear. Her hair tickled his face. It was a pleasant feeling. "The ship's going to sink if we can't stop the leak."

"Can't we just tow it to the nearest shore? And let them repair it?" Gwen murmured back, suppressing the shiver that ran through her at his proximity. He was doing it because they didn't want the humans to hear them converse, she told herself firmly.

"Not enough time. It's taken on too much water already." Clark said. He leaned back and locked eyes with her. Subconsciously they had started slowly circling each other in the air. A slow dance two feet apart. The people beneath them drank it up. "We need to—"

"—lift the ship out of the water to repair it." Gwen finished for him, gazing steadily back and mirroring his thought. He smiled. Bingo.

"Seems awfully preposterous and showy though…" Gwen sighed reluctantly, glancing down at the sea of humans gathered on the top desk, at all the eyes—and cameras—staring up at her and Kal.

"Are they all on the top decks?" Clark jerked his chin down to indicate the humans too.

"Yes. I did a full scan. There's 3,027 people here, to be exact." She loved her numbers. "I tried organizing them a bit, but some idiots—"

"It's okay." Clark cut her off quickly, smothering his laugh. He badly wanted to tell her to work on her PR skills but now was not the right time. "Let's go."

* * *

A/N: I welcome any comments. I'm not a DC expert by any means, so some attributes about Superman may be not be right. But there are so many different versions of his powers in comics past.


	13. Chapter 13

Gwen dove left while Clark dove right. They plunged into the ocean and met under the middle of the ship. Gwen's green eyes swept over the jagged tear in the ship's bottom. She reached up to touch the underside of the smooth metal and walked her hands along it until she was about a third of the way down the length of the hull. The water swirled in hot eddies around her, where Clark had boiled it.

Gazing through the many steel and wood layers of the mammoth ship with her own x-ray vision, she was satisfied that her current position would allow her to lift the ocean liner while causing the least amount of stress on the framework as a whole. She didn't want the ship breaking further in the middle, or worse, the stern or bow cracking apart due to her and Superman's poor lifting skills.

Clark was already similarly positioned on the other third of the ship facing her. A stream of sea water and bubbles separated them, so she could only see a blurry blue and red silhouette of his body. The gouge that would have doomed the ship had the two Kryptonians not been present continued taking in water between them; a teasing reminder of how much time they had left.

Without being able to speak to him underwater, Gwen started pushing gingerly, hoping that Kal-El would move at the same speed she did. They had to time this right. _Careful, careful._ She coached herself. Her muscles burned. She was a super powered woman, but damn, defying the laws of science by lifting a 900 foot ocean liner out of its bed of water still hurt like hell!

Still she heaved, doing a mix of flying and good old fashioned pushing as the _Adventurer_ began to rise slowly out of the depths of the sea. The hull made a disturbing sucking sound as the water that had been rushing to fill it starting reversing course instead. The torrent of bubbles between them cleared for a moment and Gwen caught a glimpse of Kal.

He took her breath away. His powerful arms were locked over his head, cords of muscles straining, his face contorted with concentration. She imagined briefly that her own face probably looked pained too. Bubbles of held oxygen escaped his nostrils with the effort of pressing the ocean liner upward.

He was perfectly synchronized with her though. Due to their teamwork, the ship wasn't tilting at odd angles because one of them wasn't lifting it at the same pace. Good. Then none of the humans on the top decks would be dumped into the water. They might stumble and fall with the vibration under their feet, but none would be injured. If all went well.

The _Adventurer_ was still level when it finally broke free of the ocean with a loud gurgle of displaced water. Waves crashed around the two Kryptonians, trying to claim them as their heads rose above sea level too and a deluge flowed steadily out of the wound in the ship again blocking their line of sight.

Gwen stopped ascending, her feet brushing the ocean waves. It wouldn't be smart to take the ship too far out of its element. What if she dropped it? Oh _God_ …it was heavy. So heavy. Without the buoyancy water provided, the massive ship weighed even more above her now. It could crush her. This was exhausting. The worst upper body workout _ever._

Gwen's arm muscles screamed at the 90 degree angles she held them at. She ground her teeth together, wincing. Well at least she could add "bench pressed a roughly 900 foot, 50,000 ton luxury liner" to her list of accomplishments. Imagine how much harder this would be if she were to try lifting this ship completely alone?

Gwen chuckled to herself. Then the thought bit into her and stung. This must be what Clark's life was like. All the time. All the years he had been here alone, up to and including his adulthood. If she wasn't here, he would be trying a painful stunt like this himself. He always had to save the world by himself.

The torrent rushing out of the ship's underbelly was slowing down. Gwen could see the Man of Steel again through a curtain of falling water, faithfully holding up the ocean liner across from her. She might have imagined it—her visibility was poor after all—but he might have been trembling too. Hurting too. Were they indeed equals? She had always assumed he was stronger than her.

She held firm, taking jagged breaths through her mouth. Her eyes watered. The massive weight of the ship slammed into her bent wrists, numbing her splayed fingers and flowed down her arms, down her shoulder blades and into her back where it exploded in a thousand directions, disbursing the pain throughout her entire body. How much longer did she have to hold it?

There. The outpouring water was down to a steady trickle. The ocean had finally left the ship and returned to itself. Where it was supposed to. Gwen's eyes sought Kal's.

He was 300 feet away. His arms were definitely shaking. His face was tilted upward, neck taut. The ship groaned and creaked, metal screeching somewhere deep within it. Gwen allowed other sounds to reach her ears too and registered a few exclamations of the surprised passengers and crew members 100 feet above them.

"What happening! Where's Superman?"

"Someone get down there and look!"

Gwen winced. _No! Don't look…idiots._ Couldn't they guess what was happening?

Clark took his mind off of the tremendous bulk of the ocean liner for a second to angle his head down and steal a look at Gwen. She was amazing. She was freaking amazing, holding her own even though he would want to bet this was her first time lifting this much weight. He had to get this fiasco over quickly. His palms were sweating. Good thing this ship was flat in places along its metal underside or he would be in grave danger of slipping and dropping it.

Clark triggered his heat vision, superheating the metal rend in the hull. It was a challenge. Not only was he a hundred feet away from the wound, trying to aim for that distant target without hitting Gwen, but he was tired and his eyes were nearly level with the ship's bottom so he couldn't see the gouge very well. This predicament required him to shift his hold and put greater strain on his arms as he pressed the ship higher over his head, screaming until his arms were straight over his head, elbow locked so that he could get a better angle at the metal with his eyes.

Gwen saw what he was struggling with and did the same. She gradually straightened her arms too, sounds of pain escaping her lips that she had absolutely no control over and didn't care if they made her sound weak. The 50,000 tons of ocean liner felt even worse with her arms in this position. She could feel the muscles in her arms and shoulders tearing and seizing. Her body quaked all over. Gwen kicked out her feet, lashing at waves licking her boots, trying desperately to distract herself and maintain this agonizing position. To keep still. To keep Kal's respect and admiration for her.

 _Wait. What?_ Gwen glowered at Kal, as if that last thought was his fault. That wasn't what this was about. Stupid voices in her head…

His eyes were still spewing bright red beams of concentrated light, his mouth was twisted in a silent roar. The metal melted where he targeted it, but it was slow going. Too slow. He was struggling just as much as she was.

Well, if they were really the same, if they had the same powers from that yellow star…shouldn't she have heat vision too? Gwen had never tried it. Had never attempted to exercise all the powers she heard and witnessed Superman having. It had always seemed unnecessary or surreal for her.

But anything would be better than waiting here watching Clark slowly burn out. Than bearing another minute of holding this ship high above her head. Her arms were way past numb. They didn't even belong to her anymore at this point. She studied Clark's progress. The rip in the ship's underbelly wasn't even halfway closed.

Gwen thought about heat vision. Thought about what it would be like. She had the power of Earth's sun stored in her. In her cells. She just had to convince it to come out now. Direct it at this hunk of a heavy, broken ship. She just had to burn the stubborn metal hull.

Gwen blinked and tried. Nothing happened at first. _Heat vision, heat vision._ She held her eyes wide open and concentrated. Willed the power to flow out of her retinas. She stared determinedly at the opposite end of the hull that Clark was working on. _BURN already you moth—_

Red beams of concentrated light blasted out of her eyes so fast Gwen jumped and jostled the ship. The sensation she had just felt was tingling and sizzling hot. She snapped her eyes shut with half a thought. _SHIT! Shit shit shit!_ She gasped and forced her body to freeze. To not move a muscle as the ship creaked and moaned above her, every structure within it straining.

People screamed, but no bodies fell over the sides into the water.

A voice floated over to her. Kal's voice.

"Try it again."

He sounded stressed and half dead. Way to encourage. Gwen opened her eyes and gazed up at the metal wound again. She inhaled deeply. Shut out the background noise jamming her eardrums. The frantic pounding of her own heartbeat became the loudest thing in her head. She willed the heat to flow out of her again.

The red beams of compressed power complied and tore out of her like she had asked. Idiot that she was. It stung her eyeballs, but not painfully. More like an annoying, burning itch. It was the strangest sensation. And she could barely see around the blinding red glow. She could see hazy bits in her peripheral and not much straight ahead.

Still she concentrated on directing the heat beam firmly on the metal ship and not on Kal, or anywhere else where the energy could cause destruction.

How much time passed, she didn't know. She patiently welded the ship together, moving her gaze slowly—too slowly for her taste—across the ripped metal, waiting for it to seal before moving on to the next section. And then another beam of red met hers. Kal's heat vision. They had reached the middle. Thank goodness!

Gwen let out the tight breath she had been holding, her chest heaving as she sucked in more oxygen. She finished the last of the welded metal seam—only a scant amount of ocean water would seep through now, if that. It wasn't art, and it work wasn't perfect, but hey…

"Gwen!" Clark called through gritted teeth. She glanced over at him, energy still blaring from her eyes and nearly hit him with her red beam. He jumped out of the way with a flick of his torso.

"Damn it! Sorry! Sorry!" Gwen cried, and snapped the flow of power to her eyes off, feeling mortified. The ship rocked above them since Clark had moved so suddenly. Her fault.

Even though Gwen could have zeroed in on his face, she didn't dare see what his expression was. She would be pissed if she were her…

Clark didn't criticize her though. He had folded his trembling arms up so that part of the ship's weight rested on the top of his head too. He looked exhausted. He met her eyes and jerked his chin down sharply.

 _Down. Right. Great idea, Kal._ It was the perfect time to go down. Gwen let Earth's gravity do most of the work. Giving the mammoth ship back to the water was WORLDS easier than forcing it up out of it. She and Clark lowered it slowly, holding their breath again as the ocean closed over their heads. They sank with the ship's bulk into the dark water until they no longer had to support the weight of the _Adventurer_. She floated on her own, at her normal high water mark, safe and sound.

Gwen drifted away from the ship's underbelly and flipped onto her back, gazing up at the welded repair she and Kal had executed. He was already there inspecting it, running a hand over the lumpy metal which was still cooling underwater. Their seal held though.

Gwen's arms throbbed as blood rushed back into abused muscles. It hurt just to lower them down to her sides. She glanced over at Clark to make sure he was okay. His face still looked tight with the strain he had gone through, but he met her gaze and nodded proudly. She glided past him, never breaking eye contact and brushed his hand with her thumb. He raised his eyebrows inquisitively. He couldn't say anything.

Gwen giggled low in her throat and rocketed across the bow of the liner to propel her body into open air again, filling her lungs. Wow. She needed this oxygen, and sunlight. And a huge meal maybe…that was hard work.

* * *

A/N. Do you think that Superman and Superwoman would grow tired from lifting a ship like this? I feel like they would be, even with powers. Ah well, it's fan fiction. Let me know your thoughts! Happy belated Easter.


	14. Chapter 14

"SUPERWOMAN!" the people on the top deck chorused wildly, waving at her. She took a personal gamble and lowered herself gingerly into the crowd, her boot soles brushing polished hardwood.

The captain burst out of his cabin finally and rushed over to shake her hand, babbling nonsense that her ears promptly blocked. A tall woman dressed in wait staff uniform draped a white towel over Gwen's shoulders so she could dry herself off. She was dripping water all over this deck and her hair must look like—

The people parted with a roar of applause as Kal-El touched down on Gwen's right hand side. Gwen quickly threw the white towel over her black curls and rubbed it a bit to hide the flush of red that crept up her neck and cheeks when he turned to smile at her. It wasn't fair that he was so irresistible.

"Thank you! Thank you!" the captain of the _Adventurer_ pushed his way forward. "You saved us Superman!"

Gwen stilled and yanked the towel off her head.

" _I_ saved you?" Clark sounded mildly amused, much like a professor correcting a foolish student. "Wrong." He jerked his chin at Gwen, gracing her with another adorable smile. "How about a round of applause for this lady?"

The crowd complied half-heartedly, most of them looking a little confused. Whispers about her shot around the passengers. Nothing she hadn't heard already.

"Who IS she?"

"Why did she come here?"

"What's her name?"

"Where did Superman find her?"

Gwen threw the damp towel at Kal. "Oh come off of it." She hissed, embarrassed and flattered at the same time.

Clark turned his attention to the ship's captain. "Captain. What is your destination?"

"We, uh are a two week long luxury cruise, uh charting the coasts on tour, starting from Spain and uh, ending in the Persian Gulf—" the captain began dubiously, blinking at Clark like he was a god.

"Can you get there on your own power?" Clark interrupted smoothly, looking neither angry nor pleasant. His gaze fell over the crowd; narrowed eyebrows and stern eyes. Water rolled off of his blue suit. It looked practically dry already, and while Gwen was still drenched in her clingy sweater and skinny jeans, Clark looked absolutely fantastic. The late afternoon sun glinted off of his sculpted muscles—

Gwen faced forward. She reached behind her head to tighten the ends of the makeshift mask tied around her eyes and nose.

"No. We've absorbed a lot of structural damage. But the ICG is on its way." The captain replied, eyes flitting between Clark and Gwen now as if not sure where to look first. "We radioed them after the initial hit, but we would have sunk long before they got here. If not for you!"

"Anyone injured?" Gwen asked, holding up her hand to politely refuse another white towel the same waitress was offering her.

"Some bumps and bruises. One reported sprained ankle. No one was near the break when it happened. No one went overboard. All souls present and accounted for." The first mate, a severe looking woman in her middle forties offered in a crisp British accent, standing beside the besotted captain.

"How did it happen?" Clark asked, his face still passive.

"Submarine, as far as we could tell. Ran too close to us. Not sure which country it was from. The Indian Coast Guard should be able to look into that as well."

"Thank you Superman!" an eight year old boy exclaimed, elbowing his way to the front of the circle of people. "Thank you Superwoman!" he grinned at Gwen, flashing a mouthful of teeth. One of the front ones was missing. His parents hurried forward and gripped him by the shoulders, as if afraid of what their child might do to their powerful heroes.

"Yes, thank you." The first mate nudged the still gawking captain deliberately, and swept her calm gaze around the crowd. "Thank you!" she repeated louder. "C'mon, you bunch of ingrates!"

The 3,000 plus humans took up the call, thanking the two Kryptonians for their assistance.

Gwen felt like bowing back or something. She tried to catch Kal's eye without turning her head. Did he even feel awkward? She didn't like this ridiculous attention.

Clark just stood there for a silent minute, and smiled slightly at the crowd.

"How long will it take the ICG to get here?" he asked the first mate, since she was the most responsive.

"Eight hours." She replied. "But they still need to evacuate the ship. We don't want all these passengers stuck here for the days it might take to make repairs. And we're floating in international waters."

Clark leaned over to Gwen, his broad shoulder brushing hers. "How are you feeling?" he said in an old language that shocked her ears. She hadn't heard it in years. It was Kryptonese!

Her head whipped to him. Damn, his face was close.

"I'm fine." She replied carefully in the same language, the words coming out rusty. "I can handle a little more, if that's what you're asking." Her arms still burned and her entire body was still on fire from lifting the ship, but those feelings rapidly diminished when all she could think about was how close he was. There were people watching!

Clark smiled, pleased and impressed with her. His expression blatantly told her so too before he straightened, his gorgeous eyes closing and opening in a slow blink as he turned to the captain and first mate.

"How about a tow?"

After a flurry of conversation from the captain and his crew consisting of heaps upon heaps of gratitude: " _Really_ Superman? And Superwoman (hurriedly) You'd do that for us too?" followed by discussion of _where_ exactly the cruise ship should go, and then of course the matter of notifying the ICG of their change in plans, they were finally set.

Kal-El and Gw'len Elon flew to the stern of the ship and pressed their backs up against the twenty foot tall _Adventurer_ lettering _._ The rudder and controls were still in working order, so the ship's crew could do the steering. All the two Kryptonians had to do was provide the drive.

Clark rolled his broad shoulders, trying to get comfortable against the hard surface and Gwen tried just as hard not to stare. Her body was taut as a wire.

"I like this idea of yours." She said conversationally. "Saves pushing with our arms."

"Yeah. Mine need a nap." Clark chuckled, surprising Gwen that he could crack a joke. His eyes slid toward her. "Long day, huh."

She nodded, green eyes looking back at him through her black mask. Which was still wet. And itchy. And annoyingly stuck to her skin.

"You know you don't have to hide." Clark said gently, just as one of the damp scarf ends whipped around with a downdraft of ocean wind and slapped Gwen in the face.

"Ready?" she huffed in reply, squaring her own shoulders. She pointed her elbows out and laced her fingers over her chest.

"Ready." Clark grinned wide enough to show his teeth this time. They pressed out, defying Earth's laws for the umpteenth time that day as they began flying backwards. Gently at first, reigning in their super strength so that the ship's bow didn't jolt clean out of the water. Then they gradually increased their pushing power until the _Adventurer_ was moving along the ocean waves at a steady 25 knots.

Gwen allowed her legs to stretch out straight in front of her, reclining on a comfortable cushion of air. She sighed. This was a piece of cake compared to hauling a whale of a ship skyward for an impromptu welding job, courtesy of Kryptonian talent and harnessed sun.

"Comfy?" Clark quipped beside her. She frowned and closed her eyes. Daft man.

"Actually yes. Quite." She replied, hoping she matched his snarky tone. But her voice sounded more worn out than anything. The metal of the ship was ice cold against her shoulder blades and neck. She could use a nice soft bed right about now.

Mercifully Clark didn't say anything further. Okay maybe he did have more going for him than his arresting good looks. _Shut up Gwen._

"How did you read my mind?" she asked after a half hour, watching the horizon and flying backwards almost casually now that they had a good speed going and had gotten past the huge ship's inertia.

"What do you mean? I didn't. I can't." Clark's voice was nearly carried away on the wind clawing its way around the sides of the hull and flowing past them. But he was only a foot away from her—he may or may not have scooted a hands breadth closer in the last five minutes—so she still heard him.

"That's a comfort." She said. She registered his frown in her peripheral vision. "I meant how you were able to do what I was thinking. At the time or before I was thinking it. Like lifting the ship."

Clark considered. "It was your idea too. And good teamwork." He looked over at her. "I've worked in teams before and we can't always formulate a plan. Sometimes we just jump in and do what we've got to do and it works out."

"Sure." Gwen shrugged. They flew backwards in silence for a while. Clark shifted position and tilted his head back and forth, stretching kinks out of his neck.

"Gw'len."

"What." Gwen drew out the word with a huff.

"Thank you."

She winced. _Don't ask, don't ask…_

"For what?" Traitor mouth. The words jumped right out before she could stop them.

"For helping today. For teaming up with me." Clarks voice was sincere and wonderful to her ears but Gwen still begged him inwardly to shut up.

"Those people needed it." She said, clearing her throat and closing her eyes.

"I needed you too."

That damn man. That teasing idealist who always had her on edge and always said the right things in the wrong way when she had already prepared herself never to hear them.

Clark could tell by the way her body stiffened and her mouth clammed up that he had once again struck a nerve.

"Superman and Superwoman, we are 100 miles from our destination now. Please decrease propulsion by 15 knots." A voice crackled over a loudspeaker installed on the stern.

Gwen's eyes popped open. She tore her eyes from the darkening horizon to direct them at Kal. Her heart leaped into her throat as she found he was already looking at her. Had been for a while. Creep! Her mind screamed in mixed trepidation and delight. What a mess she was.

She stopped flying. That's what he got. Yep. She had quite enough of this awkward moment.

Her body peeled away from the ship and she drifted up toward the clouds like an escaped balloon, watching the ship and Clark recede away from her. Clark pushed the ship toward India for only a few minutes more before he too was zooming through the air, spinning as he passed Gwen like a free bird.

She would have smirked and waved goodbye had his powerful hand not closed around her wrist and dragged her up with him, on a wild rollercoaster of bumpy air currents and varying breakneck speeds. He did barrel rolls through the air, his red cape wrapping them both up in a mess of suffocating cloth before he unwound it by twisting in the other direction.

Gwen protested at first by screaming her head off and yanking at her captured hand. Then she forgot to scream as the exhilaration of flying and speed and so much delicious, open air claimed her instead and she ran with it. By the time they slowed to a lazy pace, 50,000 feet above sea level to avoid the cloud layer, Clark didn't have to hold her wrist captive anymore to keep her with him.

They floated on their backs side by side, looking up at warm, direct sunlight as it recharged their Kryptonian cells.

Clark reached one hand over and undid the knot binding Gwen's mask to her face. The black scarf fell away, another random object of hers falling somewhere on Earth. She breathed deeply.

"Ok I was going to ask what the hell that wild ride was for but now I know." She told him, arching her sore back and enjoying the heat of the yellow star. A pause. "It was you being a jerk. Like usual."

Clark chuckled darkly, sighed. "Jerk is my middle name. Didn't anyone tell you?"

"Kal Jerk El or Clark Jerk Kent…" Gwen mused. "Neither works. I suspect you're lying—"

"There were several cameras on that ship." Kal interrupted her. "Are you ready to come out of hiding?"

"Never." Gwen answered without pause.

"Why?"

* * *

Had a bout of bronchitis, but I'm still having fun writing this piece. Been on a writing kick lately, so I'm thinking about updating more than once a week. Is anyone reading though? Please leave a quick review to let me know you're reading. Thanks!


	15. Chapter 15

_"Are you ready to come out of hiding?"_

 _"Never."_

 _"Why?"_

Clark's thick dark eyebrows came together as he waited a breath for Gw'len's answer. It had better be good—

Gwen inhaled long and hard through her pert little nose. "I'll never be ready. I hate being the center of attention. To have strangers judging me, my performance, my associates, my looks, my everything. Can't you see that yet Kal? Can't I do my small, discrete jobs and backwater situations and be done with it?"

Clark didn't answer. Gwen would have to open her eyes to glimpse what he was thinking so instead she continued whining. "I wasn't born for it. I don't like crowds and too many people. Not that it won't stop me from helping them, but people are _exhausting_. And they ask questions I don't feel like answering. And they demand _so_ much."

"I wasn't ready either." Clark said. His voice was as sharp as steel. He started to say something else and then stopped himself with effort.

"What?" Gwen dragged her eyes open and turned to him. She was flying a few inches above him which made glancing over difficult. She adjusted her flight pattern so that they were level again.

Kal stared up at Earth's sun, still reclining, but his body language was far from relaxed or peaceful. Waves of irritation and tension rolled off of him. Gwen could feel them in the air around them if they were tangible.

His eyelids slammed shut and he stayed that way for a long moment. His face hard. His lips pressed together, fists balled at his sides and body ramrod straight as he lay on the air. Like a dead man.

"What?" Gwen said again. He persisted with the dead man float. She poked his arm with her index finger. "Kal, you look like you're at your own funeral."

"In a way I am." He said, eyes still closed. Then quickly: "Don't give me that look." Gwen paused mid dramatic eye roll. How did he know what look she had on? Damn man. His eyes were still closed.

"Put yourself in my boots for just a split second."

"Oh god." Gwen groaned, not liking where this conversation was heading. She let her body go loose like a noodle and dropped out of the sky headfirst, spinning down to Earth's surface. Clark's course had chased the sun, so she found herself over the continent of Africa and approaching it fast. She corrected her flight to avoid the dense jungle sections and aimed for what looked like a secluded beach. Morocco. The sun was still shining on the sand when she plopped down on it.

She laid back and scanned the skies, fully expecting a stubborn Kryptonian male to appear in her airspace. When a few minutes passed she found herself surprised. Maybe he wasn't going to chase her anymore, huh? Ah. Maybe she could actually enjoy a moment of this soft, warm sand—

"Spare me a second—just a measly little second—of your esteemed time. Okay?" Clark landed next to her so hard sand splayed in all directions, including over her. She coughed and sat up, spitting grains out of her mouth and wiping her face clean.

"Real mature, Kal." she drawled, blinking sand rapidly out of her eyes.

"I could say the same for you!" He replied hotly. "All I want is a SECOND without you running any time I hit a nerve. I know you're itching to get back to the City of Hiding From Everyone. Super urgent. Yeah. I get it. _God_ you're annoying!"

Gwen inclined her head and stared at his knees, not daring to look up at him. She had never heard him this worked up before. Not even the media had ever caught his much anger coming from him. If she were human, she might feel terrified. Or chided. She dabbed at her face with the sleeve of her stiff turtleneck sweater. She was thoroughly uncomfortable now, but couldn't afford to show him that or give him one inch.

"Okay now that we've been properly introduced, tell me what's on your mind." She said, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

Clark remained standing. Gwen expected more of a tirade from him; an unleashing of all that weighed on his mind and heart. But he paused for a full minute. "It must be nice." He growled, his voice dipping dangerously low, "To have a choice. Enjoy it while you can." Then his boots rose out of her line of sight and he flew off.

Gwen lay back down on the soft sand. She wanted to enjoy herself now. Celebrate her small victory. She had butted heads with the mighty Kal-El and won. That made her a strong, independent woman and no man could tell her what to do. Right? She tried to feel satisfied. Confident. But those emotions eluded her and scattered in the opposite direction. Instead she was left with a nasty sense of guilt and a hard dose of reality that refused to let her fully relax.

* * *

Kal was tired. Tired of flying. Tired of being tired. Tired of it all. And it was a hard rut to pull himself out of. He was beat, emotionally and physically. His brain was on autopilot. He tuned his super senses for trouble on Earth out of ingrained habit, but a quick scan of this hemisphere turned up nothing major.

Before he knew it he was over Kansas. And then in Smallville. And then touching down softly in a familiar cornfield. He stared at the house of his distant childhood, the place he had gained and lost so much in without really seeing it. His feet automatically moved him forward. It was dusk, but he didn't need light to know his way around.

As he plodded up the front porch steps the door opened and his mother stepped out, jingling keys, her purse in her hand.

She froze and looked up when she saw his tall silhouette looming in her doorway. In full Superman attire.

"Clark!" she cried. "Is that you? You scared the daylights out of me. Stop sneaking up like that!"

"Hi Mom." Clark closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. She dropped her purse behind him and returned his hug, being there for him silently for a long moment. Then she pulled back and raised her eyebrows.

"Honey, you smell like seawater. You'd better come inside." She led the way. Clark bent to scoop up her purse as he followed her in.

"You were on your way out?" he prompted as she closed the door behind them and flicked on a few lights.

"Yes I was just locking up when you appeared. Going for a late night grocery run. There's a storm coming tomorrow…" she let her voice trail off, smiling gently as she appraised her son in the light. She could instantly tell something was wrong but she didn't say anything further.

"I could get your groceries." Clark offered, stepping around a pair of discarded rubber boots that were in the hallway. His red cape snagged on a coat hook as he brushed past.

"No, no. Don't worry about that." She chided. "You're here now." She deposited her purse and the truck keys on the kitchen table and shooed him toward the staircase. "Go change. And maybe shower. I'll make you something. What would you like?"

"I'm not hungry—"

"Nonsense. You're always hungry." She gripped his elbow and steered him through the house until she was sure he was going to go upstairs. "I'll just be a minute."

Clark knew better than to argue with her, and he was too tired to waste much effort on that anyways. So he went upstairs. The house always seemed smaller to him every time he visited it. But it still held comfort and solidarity. It was a kind of sanctuary. He showered and changed into a freshly washed blue button down shirt and jeans. He could always rely on his mother to have clothing on hand for him. Some of it was his father's. He had grown larger than his dad's clothing sizes in his adult body, so he couldn't wear those shirts, but he could still smell his dad's scent lingering on some of the clothing hanging at the back of the upstairs closet.

Clark tossed his Kryptonian suit, from his biological father Jor-El, into the bathtub and ran some soap over it. To let it soak and try to draw some of the sea water out of it. He made his way back downstairs, already feeling a little better. More aware of his surroundings.

"There you are." Martha Kent smiled as he emerged into the kitchen. She glanced at him approvingly. "You should take that suit off more often."

Clark raised his eyebrows but couldn't think of an appropriate reply to that loaded comment. Instead he jumped to grab plates as she picked a sizzling frying pan off of the stove and turned toward him.

"I made pork chops." She announced. Clark took the food to the dining room table. She followed him with two mugs of hot coffee.

"It smells wonderful, mother." Clark smiled at her and steadied her chair as she sat down. He sat across from her and they both ate in silence for a bit, lest the food get cold. After they were nearly done and the coffee was gone, he asked how she fared.

"The same, you know." She laughed softly. "Not much changes around here. Can't complain." She patted his left hand, which was resting on the table top. "Always good to see you."

Clark nodded, staring into his empty coffee mug. What should he say? What did he want to say?

"How are you?" she urged, her voice gentle. She knew. Of course she knew. She was his mother.

"More coffee?" he stood and refilled their mugs. When he sat back down she stayed silent, just gazing at him. So he let all his barriers down and told her everything since meeting Gw'len Elon. From where it all started with her appearing on the scene, saving his life in Metropolis fighting Lex Luther's new and improved Parademons, to what he had just told her in a moment of anger on a beach somewhere in Morocco. And everything in between. Everything he hadn't told Kara. Or Lois. Or anyone for that matter.

Martha listened patiently, never once interrupting him although her facial expressions changed throughout. When Clark finally stopped she reached across the table and held his large hands. He met her eyes and drew strength from her. It was a relief to have told her all that was heavy on his heart and mind.

"Well!" she sighed. "Is that all?"

He smiled at her little attempt at humor. She chuckled and shook her head back and forth. "Clark, honey what's the first thing you need to remember whenever you're faced with a new situation?"

"I don't know. What?" he asked, knowing he couldn't begin to guess what direction she was going.

"That you _do_ have a choice. We all do. No matter what it is, you can chose to get yourself involved or not."

"Mom, I really don't—"

"That's only because your heart it too dang big and you are _used_ to saving this world." Martha interrupted, giving him a reproaching glance for all his good values. "Look at that new girl. She made her choices. She's been on this Earth for a few years now, apparently monitoring you but did she jump in during some of your worst battles? No. She chose not to help. She only jumped in recently because she felt guilty and assumed you would die again."

Clark swallowed hard. His mother broke it all down so easily.

"She's selfish." Martha Kent continued, squeezing Clark's hands in hers. "You're the opposite of selfish. You're always there at the first sign of trouble. You've built up this huge reputation as Earth's hero not for glory or because you love people's attention, but because of what you did, and how you did it. Of course there are still some boneheads that will never understand who you are—"

"Mom," Clark cautioned, before she got on her soapbox about the way governments tended to treat him; fear him.

"Fine, fine. The point is, it's not a matter of who came first from your planet. Doesn't even matter what your Kryptonian father told you, that you had to shoulder great responsibility and all that. Just because you were here first do you have to do the majority of the fighting? No! In what world is that even fair? If there are three Kryptonians living among us then they can share a third of the saving the world." Martha nodded emphatically and Clark had a difficult time trying not to smile at her reasoning. "Or you can all chose not save the world together and we'll all see how we make it to tomorrow. The sun might still rise without your help."

"So you're saying I should cut back?" Clark gave his mother a long look, his lips quirking at the corners. "Ask Kara and Gw'len to take over?"

Martha smiled, her eyes warm. "Go ahead and joke. You know I'm proud of you, honey. Just as your father was proud of you. I know you're headstrong and will do whatever you damn well please as soon as you leave my porch again anyways, but just think about it."

Clark retracted his hands from her grip to pick up his mug and take a long draft of lukewarm coffee.

His mother hummed a few bars of a tune to herself.

"I'd like to meet this Gwen, Clark."

Clark choked and nearly spit coffee out of his nose. He swallowed quickly. "What!"

"Just what I said. Invite her over for a chat." Martha smiled serenely.

"She would never do it." Clark guffawed, leaning way back in his chair. "She doesn't even want to chat to me."

"I still want to meet her."

"You haven't even met my cousin Kara!"

"Not in person, no, but we talk sometimes through internet mail." His mother shrugged. "She's a lovely girl."

Clark laughed out loud, absorbing the surprise. "Really? Since when?"

"Since your supposed death. Kara checked in with me. Lois keeps in touch with me too. Not lately, but she'll call once in a blue moon."

Martha rose and walked around the table to pick up Clark's mug. She bumped into his arm with her hip affectionately. "Those girls contact me more than you do, you sorry workhorse!" She clicked her tongue and disappeared into the kitchen.

Clark grinned in the wake of her mild scolding and gathered up the rest of dishes. He muscled his way past his mother to the sink where she was already running water.

"I'll do the dishes."

"No. Leave them for tomorrow. I don't have much time with you." Martha laughed, trying to grab the plates he was holding as he playfully jostled her further away. He held the dishes high over his head, out of her reach and a genuine laugh tore out of his throat as they danced around the kitchen, each trying to gain control of the space in front of the sink.

"Gimme that silverware!" Martha yanked on his shirttail and tugged him backward only because he allowed it.

"No! I'll do the dishes." Clark repeated. He grinned, the smile reaching his blue eyes and spun away from her, careful not to step on her tiny feet.

"Clark!" she poked him in the stomach.

"Hey!" he doubled over, snorting with fresh laughter as she tickled him. Both of his hands were still clutching dishes so he was helpless to defend himself. "No fair Mom!"

She stopped and collapsed on the nearest chair until her laughter receded. Clark quickly took care of the few dirty dishes they had made and stacked them to the side.

Then he listened while she gossiped about all their neighbors and the surrounding area, sharing the local events. Births, deaths, weddings. Many of the people that Clark went to school with were growing up and moving on. Or staying put. He enjoyed hearing his mother ramble on. He relaxed as the last lingering threads of depression left him.

"It's past midnight, mother." He sighed after a while, leaning his shoulder into the door frame.

Martha smiled. "Seems I should be the one telling you to go to bed, not the other way around."

"I'll stay the night." He assured her.

Her eyes twinkled at him. "Good." She shuffled into the living room. "I guess it doesn't hurt if I rest my eyes a little then."

While she dozed in her easy chair, Clark retrieved his suit and hung it to dry. He went into his old bedroom and lay down on top of the neatly tucked quilt, staring up at the ceiling and thinking. He allowed himself to drift off for an hour or so.

Then he woke and checked on Martha. He watched her sleep with a smile on her face before sneaking out of the back door and floating up to the roof. He took deep lungfuls of the dusty but familiar late summer air. And tried not to think about Gwen.

* * *

 _A/N: I loved writing Superman's mother into the story. Diane Lane played her so well in the movies and I hope I portrayed her genuine, good-natured self well in this fic too. Hope someone enjoys this chapter as much as I did!_


	16. Chapter 16

Clark's eyes panned over the homestead, assessing every detail. No danger. Nothing amiss except maybe that piece of trim peeling off the barn and flapping in the wind. Everything was quiet. His gaze moved instead across miles of farmland either up to the interstate, which was crawling with lights.

Clark hadn't felt his body physically age since reaching his mid 20's. He wondered morbidly how many more years Martha would be here. Time seemed to run more slowly in Smallville but it certainly did not stop. He would lose her eventually.

He clenched his jaw against that thought and pressed his back against the cold stone chimney—mindful l not to break it—and closed his eyes. He opened his other senses and let a surge of information about the surrounding world filter through his super brain. Men joked with each other and swapped stories at a truck stop ten miles North. Foxes yapped alongside a dry riverbed in the county directly ahead of him. A bartender sang to himself. Road rage flared on the nearest interstate; horns blared. In the next city someone screamed, but it was an infant demanding a late night snack. In the next state a trio of teens tried to pry the front off an ATM but the installed safety alarms chased them away. A police unit charged an apartment complex and exchanged gunfire with gang leaders holed up within. The lawmen won but were unable to save one of their own in the crossfire. In a hospital four blocks away from that encounter, a surgeon saved one of his.

Clark dialed his senses back to that of a normal human, cutting off the flow of mixed sadness and joy. He watched the sunrise.

"Never get tired of that, huh?" Martha's voice drifted up to him. She was standing beneath the roof, squinting at him and smiling.

"Best seat on the house." He called back, glancing at the sky. The sun's rays blinked out, snuffed by a heavy curtain of black clouds that were forming to the West.

"Told you there was a storm coming." Martha said with satisfaction. "Come and help me with a few chores."

It was a welcome respite to let his mother boss him around. He wanted to help her, since he was here. He walked off the roof and dropped to the ground, only causing a tiny quake before following her toward the barn. They worked well together, Clark mainly lifting things for her and making small repairs. The wind intensified and prodded at them as they secured the rest of the property and the first few fat raindrops fell as they ran into the house.

"Thanks honey." Martha panted, peeling off her work gloves. Clark smiled and bent to kiss her forehead.

"I'm going to use your phone for a second." He said, walking into the living room. He dialed Lois's mobile.

"Martha?" she answered on the second ring. Must have had caller ID.

"It's me." He said, grinning into the phone.

"HELLO stranger!" she squealed. "Why didn't you come to see me after that British ocean liner incident? That Superwoman showed up again! That's amazing! What did she say? What's her name? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I never promised you'd get the exclusive every time." Clark chuckled. "It's a big world—"

"It doesn't matter." She said, sounded clipped and clearly disappointed. "Anyways I'm at the airport. Perry is sending me to the Sudan for two weeks. But I'll drop that story if you want to tell me about Superwoman."

"Be careful."

"You're such a buzzkill!" Lois crowed, "But feel free to visit me." She finished in a coquettish tone.

"Are you okay Lois?" Clark sighed.

"Yes! I'm just fine. This Sudan project will be amazing. I'm chasing a group of rouge—hey Randy! Randy? That's not my bag—that one. The green one. Yes. Thanks! I'm taking two photographers with me. They're falling all over themselves helping me out. Isn't that great Clark?"

"Great?"

"I've got to go though. My plane is boarding."

"Lois I—"

"Nice hearing from you, Clark." She said, and ended the call.

Clark placed the phone down and blinked at it, his eyebrows drawn together. That was a rather strange conversation…

"Why the face?" Martha asked, coming over. She reached up to touch his cheek affectionately.

"Oh, just Lois." Clark shrugged, and didn't expand on that comment. And thankfully his mother didn't press for more information.

* * *

Three weeks passed and Clark went on with life. He saved the Earth from its worst disasters and "dialed back" as his mother called it on the smaller matters that humans could deal with. He checked in frequently on Lois in the Sudan, though he only watched her from 10,000 feet in the air above her position or listened with his keen hearing from just as many miles away.

He didn't know exactly why, but he had little desire to go incognito and visit her in person while she chased her story. She was never apart from those two new cameramen anyways, so he wasn't sure he would be able to get a moment alone with her. Randy and Ty—he heard Lois call the cameraman—kept up with her insatiable excitement for adventure and energy well enough. They also flirted heavily. And not just the two men. Lois gave as well as she took.

Clark wasn't sure how to feel about that either. Another reason why he stayed away. Let her have her freedom, he supposed. His resolve almost crumbled though a few nights when she would stand outside of the tent she was staying in and stare up at the night sky. Waiting for him? Or stargazing? She would stand like that for a quarter hour until someone in her traveling party would escort her back inside the tent with excuses about the night chill or her looking like an easy target.

She got her story though, and once she was back in Metropolis at the _Daily Planet_ Clark felt more at ease. At least where her safety was concerned. He wasn't sure about the rest of it. About them.

He was standing on a flat rooftop facing her office on the second night she got back, and toying with the idea of making an appearance at her apartment tonight when he heard grunting and mild cussing behind him.

He glanced over his shoulder just as the Flash's head popped up over the edge of the roof, hands gripping the metal fire escape.

"Geesh! Twelve stories! Oh God…(Huff, huff) Really wishing I had a jet pack or something right about now." Barry moaned, dragging his wiry body fully onto the roof and laying on his stomach to catch his breath. "You lucky, flying bastard!" (Gasp, gasp).

"You could have asked me to meet you somewhere more…convenient." Clark shot the young man a half grin.

"Somewhere on flat, open ground where I would be able to smoke your ass in the next race?" Barry quipped, prying himself up on his hands and knees, and still sucking in breath dramatically. "Yeah. Rub it in." He wasn't dressed in his obnoxious red Flash suit. He was wearing baggy cargo pants and a black T-shirt. Once he was upright, he arched his back, cracking vertebra, and stretched his limbs too, moaning throughout the process.

Clark worked his lips to keep most of the rising smile at bay, watching the teen's antics. "You alright there, Barry?"

"Never better!" Barry sniffed, his nose continuing to twitch as he squinted at Clark and seemed to truly notice him. "No cape suit today? This is new. I mean, I know you probably don't wear the suit ALL the time, you probably have to wash and repair it—do you have a secret lab? Bruce does. Oh wait. You probably know that. Hey at least you're a jeans and T-shirt kinda guy. Bruce is always parading about in black tie on his days off. Looks exhausting. If he's trying to impress Diana Prince though, he's trying too hard. She's already interested. Any idiot can see that. They're at a party tonight, I heard. And didn't invite me—"

He rattled on and on.

Clark gave up on any pretense of a serious meeting and chuckled, letting his face split into a wide smile as he listened to the Flash's rapid string of sentences. He let the kid go for about thirty more minutes, alternating between scanning Metropolis at large, the _Daily Planet_ building, and Barry's unruly, spiky hairdo.

Finally he hooked his thumbs in his blue jeans and turned to face the animated teen, who had just begun to describe his favorite numbers of Pi.

"What's up, Barry?"

"—sometimes I count just the 7s and 3s when I can't fall asleep. Oh." Barry closed his mouth with herculean effort and blinked.

"As much as I enjoy your company, why are you here?" Clark persisted, inclining his head.

"Wow, Superman likes my company?" Barry gloated under his breath, then: "I uh, wanted another race."

"No you didn't." Clark was a champion body language reader at this point. Life experience and his own heightened supersensory powers didn't even have to back him up to know that the Flash was lying.

"Yes I do!" Barry frowned. He held Clark's slightly amused but heavy gaze for a second, sensing the years and wisdom in the tall, powerful Kryptonian a few feet away. "Ok, yeah. You know my bullshit." Barry deflated just a hair. Clark nodded. "The thing is, I need your help." His young voice cracked, ashamed.

"With what?"

"I uh, lost someone." Barry shifted from foot to foot, and then began to pace in earnest. Pacing became running in little circles around the rooftop at a tightly controlled speed.

"Who?" Clark wasn't bothered at all by the whirlwind that was the Flash now spinning around him. He could still track the kid's face even when Barry sped up to become a blur that the human eye wouldn't be able to keep up with.

"My girlfriend." Barry frowned, speeding up so that the vortex Clark was standing the middle of sucked at his clothing and took the oxygen with it. Breathing was optional for Clark though. "Ok, she's…kinda my girlfriend. This girl I like. We only talked a few times. But she said—well she implied—that, you know, she liked me."

Clark crossed his arms over his chest and stayed silent, letting the teen continue.

"She's amazing, you know. Got a head of golden curls. Built like a model. Smart. She's a killer though." Barry sighed gustily.

"Wait, what?" Clark reached out and grabbed the Flash by the upper arm, abruptly stopping the whirling vortex.

"Ouch! You're strong." Barry whined, trying to shake Superman off.

"Say that last part again." Clark let go.

"She's a killer. Duh. Am I not speaking English?" Barry cracked his knuckles loudly, and then his neck too for good measure. He blew out his breath. "She's a sniper. In the British Army. Good at it, too. I've tagged along on some of her missions. Sometimes she invites me, sometimes she doesn't—"

"Why?" Clark's eyebrows rose.

"Don't judge me, dude! Everyone knows your love life straight up sucks." Barry rolled his eyes. "I like her, ok? She likes me. I think." He screwed up his face. "Anyway she hasn't invited me to meet her for like, a week. She's gone—and I've checked, believe me—I'm good with computers. All her connections are deleted. Phone is dead. Brit Army didn't pull the data on her last known mission fast enough before I got to it, so I know her last known location was Australia. She went there, was setting up for a scout or something, and then poof." He mimed a mini explosion with his open hands.

Clark frowned too.

"I can't find her. Not by any of my means. Traced her until Australia, like I said. Hacked all the satellites—well, you probably don't want to know what I've done." Barry began pacing again. "It's cool though that I met weirdos like the Justice League. I'd ask Bruce, but he's busy. Diana would help, but she'd tease me too much while doing it and act like my Mom. Cyborg is going through some upgrades. Art knows the sea better than what's going on above. So that left you."

"Thanks a lot." Clark commented dryly.

"Well you get shit done. And don't ask too many questions, so in the end, you're the best choice anyways." Barry quickly tried to amend. "Also, if I can't find her on the planet, maybe you can find her off of it…" his voice trailed off and he froze. "Do you think she's been abducted by aliens?"

Clark blinked, letting that sink in for the kid for a moment.

"Oh, no offense, dude. You're an alien." Barry opened his mouth to say more but Clark held up his hand.

"I'll help you find her. But I need something to go off of. You got a picture? A name?" He walked forward as the Flash whipped out a tablet and jabbed the touchscreen to life. The two stood shoulder to shoulder, one powerfully built Kryptonian and one gangly, high-strung teenager both frowning at the same screen as Barry scrolled through images.

Jacqueline Kurth. Sniper extraordinaire. Graduated with top honors, twenty years old, extensive military family background, and so on and so forth…Clark read, watched and absorbed the information the Flash showed him.

"I'll find her." He repeated after a while, when the data finally ran dry and the Flash's mouth was still running a mile a minute.

"That'd be awesome, dude. I can't believe it. Well—I can, because you're you, a super spy and stuff and I'm sure you'll succeed where I failed. Keep me updated? Ooooo! Better yet, can I come with you?" Barry shifted, sticking his nose in Clark's face (which was difficult, given their height difference), eyes sparking with hope and eagerness.

"Can you fly?" Clark replied rudely.

"Dammit man, no! But—"

"Then you can't come." Barry could tell the Superman was already checking out, his eyes glazing over, his boots—no sneakers; he was still in civilian dress—barely brushing the dusty rooftop now.

"Wait. You're going right now then?" the Flash stuffed his tablet back into a deep, oversized cargo pants pocket, and arranged his best pout on his face.

"Yeah. Unless you need anything else?" Clark was definitely flying now. He hovered in the air about five feet above Barry's head, looking down at him in the darkness.

"No, it's all good. Thanks in advance for doing this." Barry sighed. "Hey!" he squeaked, before Clark drifted too far away, "If you find her—when you find her, can you tell her I miss her? And that she's rude for disappearing on me?"

Superman chortled softly. "I'll tell her. Maybe. See you soon, kid."

"Not a kid." Barry growled under his breath as he watched Clark jet up and away into the open night sky.

* * *

A/N: As always, I had a ton of fun writing this, so I hope someone else has a ton of fun reading it! Hope you don't mind that I'm using multiple Justice League characters in this Superman fanfic. It's a blast. Leave a comment! Thanks to those of you that reviewed. Special shout-out to ryuuraidernight for inspiring me to update this today.


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